Tollywood actor Sri Reddy along with others, was booked by the Banjara Hills police in Hyderabad on Friday, for allegedly preventing police officers from discharging their duties.
This came a day after a group of women along with Sri Reddy had tried to assault an accused, Srisanth Reddy, inside the police station itself.
A small-time woman actor had approached the cops along with Sri Reddy and had accused Srisanth of allegedly raping her and 'exploiting' her on the promise of providing opportunities in the Telugu film industry.
“After we registered cases, we called the accused to appear before the police and Srisanth Reddy came to police station in connection with the case. When Srisanth Reddy was being questioned by police, Sri Reddy and other women gathered at the police station and prevented police from performing duties by thrashing Srisanth Reddy,’’ Banjara Hills Inspector K Srinivas was quoted as saying.
A case has been registered against Sri Reddy and others under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC.
Sri Reddy, a television anchor-turned-actress, had created a sensation by resorting to strip protest against casting couch, a euphemism for sexual harassment, in Tollywood in front of the office of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce in Hyderabad on April 7.
The Movie Artists' Association (MAA) responded with a ban on the actor but later withdrew it after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sent notices to the Telangana government and the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry over her allegations of sexual exploitation.
The commission took suo moto cognizance of media reports about the allegations raised by Sri Reddy and a lack of grievance redressal mechanism for women in the film industry.
Following this, the Telangana government decided to form a special cell to look into complaints of sexual exploitation.
After a meeting with representatives of Tollywood, Minister for Cinematography T. Srinivas Yadav announced that the special cell will be created in the Film Development Corporation.
IANS inputs