HC relief to Sudeep in coffee estate damage case

The high court has stayed the Chikkamagaluru JMFC court proceedings against Sandalwood actor Kichcha Sudeep.

The court granted the interim stay while hearing a petition filed by Sudeep, who had moved the court seeking quashing of the JMFC court’s proceedings against him. The JMFC court has issued a non-bailable warrant for Sudeep’s arrest following his non-appearance in the court despite summons being issued to him.

The high court has also ordered the issue of notice to station house officer of Mallundur police station and to Deepak Mayur Patel, the complainant before the lower court.

Background

Deepak Mayur Patel, a coffee estate owner, has alleged that Sudeep’s production house – Kichcha Creations – owes him Rs 1.5 crore for destroying the plantation during the course of a shoot.

In 2016, Sudeep’s production house, Kichcha Creations had rented the estate belonging to Deepak Mayur to shoot ‘Varasdara,’ a television show. According to Deepak, Kichcha Creations had sought permission from him to shoot the television series in his estate, to which he had agreed.

An initial payment of Rs 50,000 was made, followed by another payment of
Rs 1.8 lakh when the shooting was wrapped up last year.

Deepak has alleged that the team was supposed to shoot only inside his house in the coffee estate, and that the agreement did not include the team disrupting the activities of the coffee plantation.

However, after the shooting got over, Deepak was left with destroyed coffee plants, and several old trees were also destroyed.