Ram Charan incident: There’s more than what meets the eye

An eyewitness account of the incident involving the bodyguards of actor Ram Charan Tej and two others reveals that the car in which the duo was travelling brushed against the actor’s Aston Martin at Banjara Hills on Sunday, leading to the altercation.

The decision of the victims — Phanish and Kalyan — to initially lodge a complaint and their subsequent volte face within an hour, raised many an eyebrow too.

Sources say the actor’s car, in which he drove out of Taj Krishna, stood parallel to the victim’s Alto car near a traffic signal in Banjara Hills. Ram Charan flew into a rage when the Alto brushed against his car. He got off the vehicle and started arguing with the duo.

There is no eyewitness account on what happened immediately after that. But two of the actor’s security guards, who were following him in another vehicle, jumped out and attacked Phanish and Kalyan, who had objected to Ram Charan’s behaviour. Even before they could explain what happened, the guards began showering blows and kicking them as passers-by watched helplessly.

After the guards left the place, the duo approached the Punjagutta police, who directed them to the Banjara Hills station. By then, regional news channels had got a wind of the incident.

The two victims informed police at the Banjara Hills station of the incident, but refused to lodge a written complaint. They sat in the station for a while before telling Banjara Hills ACP E. Shankar Reddy that they did not want to proceed with the case. Interestingly, they gave it in writing to the ACP that they did not prefer to lodge a formal complaint about the incident.

Meanwhile, repeated attempts to contact Ram Charan Tej were not successful. A source close to the actor’s family maintained that “the issue is over as the two persons themselves did not want to report because fault also lies with them”.