Pawan fans start Actor Raju death hoax

Pawal Kalyan fans went to popular social networking platforms after actor and YSR Congress member Azhagu Raju criticized Kalyan in a public meeting on Saturday. By Sunday rumours claiming that actor Raju had died in a car accident were doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter.

The origin is suspected to be a fan page titled ‘Power Star Pawan Kalyan (Pawanism) Fans Page’, which posted a message that read, “Actor Raja died in accident. Rest in peace. (smile)” accompanied with a framed photograph of the actor. Soon after, many sites picked up the story. On Twitter the hashtag “#RIPRaja” was trending for a brief while. The post mysteriously disappeared later.

Apart from the attack through social networks, actor Raja reportedly received threatening calls from unidentified people who claimed to be Pawan Kalyan fans. Among others, a few messages the actor received were: "We will kill you."; "Nuvvu Hyderabad lo ela thiruguthavo memu chusthamu." (How will you roam about in Hyderabad, we shall see); "Nee cinemalu ela aaduthayo memu chusthamu."(How your films run, we will see); "Nee Film career finish." (Your film career is over).

“While a few were polite and pleaded with me to stay away from all this, most others were just extremely offensive calling me all sorts of names,” actor Raja said. “I tried to justify that I'm just doing my job as a party worker of YSRCP. It's election season and every political leader has been criticizing their opponents,” he continued. “Ours is a democratic country and freedom of speech is our constitutional right. But it obviously had little effect. I have nothing personal against Pawan. I'm just doing my job. I'm not going to be cowed down by such threats.”

The actor was unhappy with the hoax. “I’m alive and kicking,” Raja clarified, smiling. "It's just very sad. You just cannot spread rumours about somebody's death. I never imagined people can stoop so low that they wish somebody dead just because he raised a few issues you do not agree with. My family and friends have been a worried lot and have been calling me to check if I'm OK."

The incident was triggered by actor Raju’s speech about Kalyan in which he said, “Did Pawan ever speak against the injustice and corruption in the film industry? If you want to really serve the people you must come into the public and understand their problems. Pawan Kalyan is misleading the youth of the state by asking them to vote for the BJP TDP alliance.”

Meanwhile, the members of YSRCP have been considering lodging a police complaint against the perpetrators. However, Inspector Majid Khan, of the Hyderabad Cyber Crimes department denied having received any such complaint.