Actor and Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan appealed to his fans not to resort to violence in the name of adoration, in the wake of the stabbing to death of his fan Vinod Rayal. Pawan described his fellow Tollywood star Junior NTR his ‘friend,’ and urged his fans to desist from attacks on other artists in their bid to show affection for him.
The ‘Power Star’ was here on Thursday to call on the family of Y. Vinod Kumar (24) better known as Vinod Rayal, who was stabbed to death at Kolar in Karnataka a couple of days ago during a quarrel involving the fans of the two leading Telugu stars.
Fans gather at residencePawan, who came by a special flight to Renigunta airport, reached Rayal’s residence at about 11 a.m. The nondescript STV Nagar locality was chock-a-block with his fans descending on it right from 8 a.m. Hundreds of them cheered the star and ran behind his convoy.
After paying his condolences, Pawan Kalyan listened to the family members and friends on the turn of events that led to Vinod’s death.
“Treat me as your elder son,” he told Vinod’s father Y. Venkatesh, a senior engineering executive in the Amara Raja group, and mother Vedavathi, State president of Mahila Kapunadu. He promised to bring pressure on the Central and Karnataka governments to bring the guilty to book. The actor offered all possible help, but Vinod’s parents politely declined the offer.
Vinod was a B.Tech student specialising in Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE). He had planned to make a career in the U.S. and his visa process was also reportedly on.
“Vinod frequently visited Bengaluru for coaching and he recently told me that his US visit would materialise in a couple of months,” his family friend and Chittoor district Kapunadu president D. ‘Saritha’ Nagaraju said. It was actually an awareness meeting on organ donation on the fateful day, but it turned out to be a venue for fans to launch a flame war.
Slogan leads to quarrelVinod Rayal was not only an ardent fan, but also a member-volunteer-cum-organiser of Jana Sena. During his speech, he had promised to take the organ donation message to his native Chittoor district and ended his talk with a ‘Jai Pawan’ slogan which irked the fans of other actors. The meeting itself had nothing to do with tinsel town, but for the presence of actor Suman, who attended as the chief guest.
Though the issue appeared to settle down initially, the friends gathered at a nearby dhaba for dinner when it resurfaced. After a heated exchange, a local youth, Akshay Kumar, allegedly stabbed him in the chest.
The car in which Rayal was being rushed to a hospital, however, met with an accident and he had to be moved in another vehicle. Later, he succumbed to his injuries.
