SHRC seeks report on Ram Charan episode

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Wednesday directed the City Police Commissioner to submit a report by June 18 on Tollywood actor Ram Charan Tej's security personnel allegedly attacking two software employees� Phanish and Kalyan � in Banjara Hills on Sunday. The Commission acted to a complaint lodged by a High Court lawyer Saleem who pleaded that the case be taken up suo motu.

Saleem sought to draw the SHRC's attention to how the police were negligent in dealing with the issue on the excuse that there was no written complaint by the victims. He submitted the reports in the media along with pictures on the incident. Citing previous instances, he urged the Commission to treat it as a human rights issue. He said the SHRC should direct the police to register a case against the actor. He alleged that the police did not register a case as the actor was the son of Union Minister for Tourism K Chiranjeevi. Meanwhile, Phanish strongly denied that Kalyan and he had given any letter of apology to Ram Charan Tej, as was reported in a section of the media.

Such reports appeared on Wednesday quoting the actor. Interestingly they appeared with the Mumbai dateline.A IANS quoted Ram Charan Tej as saying,"They did submit a letter at the police station stating they put up this drama on the road with the intention to grab my attention near the traffic signal ". He thanked the Hyderabad police for being fair to him and not singling him out for a harsh treatment just for who he was. "The cops really carried out the inquiry well and got to know what really happened. Thereafter, they didn't lodge a complaint. I am thankful for their sense of fair play. Speaking to The Hans India over telephone on Wednesday, Phanish also denied that they had received any phone call from Ram Charan's father K Chiranjeevi apologising to them over the incident, while they were at the police station or later.

He regretted that the media had been writing a few things which were not true. For instance, their car was never parallel to that of Ram Charan Tej at the time of the incident. They were actually ahead of it and could not give way due to traffic despite Ram Charan honking all the time. Believing they were not giving way intentionally, the actor was incensed and instigated his bodyguards to attack them. Phanish also said that contrary to reports, he is not a techie; he just works in the HRD division of an IT company. It is Kalyan who is a software guy.

A conversation with Phanish gave an impression that there were two major reasons for them not to press ahead with their complaint with the police. One is that they hail from traditional, conservative, middle class families. As such they did not want to take on the high and the mighty, despite their being on the right said. So, they did not want to take any risks.

In fact, they seemed to be apprehensive of "consequences" in case they followed up the case. "Even if a case is registered what is the success rate?" he asked. "There had been similar cases involving film personalities before, but finally nothing happened." The other reason is the common concern of any middle class people to keep their jobs secure. The two friends appeared apprehensive of threats to their employment due to high-profile nature of the case.

Be that as it may, Phanish appeared to be under a shock even 72 hours after the incident. He spoke in low tones in a measured way. But he was satisfied at the way the society in general reacted to the episode. A "We were surprised to see this" he said, agreeing that it had given them some morale and confidence. He was also appreciative of the media, despite some wrong reporting, may be "due to information gap."