Director-actor nabbed with illegal weapons

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Director-cum-actor Veernala Ramakrishna was arrested on Wednesday night for possessing illegal weapons.

The cops, who found two automatic pistols and ammunitions on the filmmaker, have booked him under the Arms Act.

Ramakrishna was picked up from his residence in Yusufguda at 9 pm on Wednesday and two automatic pistols (one 9mm and one .32mm), 26 live bullets, four magazines and two empty rounds were seized from his possession. He was sent to remand for 14 days.

His debut directorial-cum-acting venture Naa Pellam, Naa Ishtam is in the post-production stage and is slated for a December or January release.

In his defence, he said, “There’s a life threat on me and my family, hence I bought the weapons for self-defence.”

The film-maker added that his father Srinivas Rao had been killed on January 3, 2011, over a property dispute in Kaskuru village in Guntur.

The three-acre agriculture land his father had bought had been allegedly confiscated unlawfully by two persons — Nagaraju and Putharaju — who were threatening his family with dire consequences.

He said that he had applied for a gun licence in 2011 but was denied. “Since the threat persisted, I procured the weapons illegally from an Agra-based supplier named Rajveer Singh with help of my friends Gopi and Giri,” he added.

Assistant commissioner of police E. Shanker Reddy said, “Ramakrishna says that the weapons are intended for self-defence, but we will investigate other angles too (whether he wanted to take revenge for his father’s murder).”

Ramakrishna has been in the Telugu film industry for more than nine years and has worked as assistant director under G. Ashok.

His movie Naa Pellam Hatya had run into controversy recently because of its name, and it was later changed to Naa Pellam, Naa Ishtam.

Police said that he had paid Rs 1,70,000 for the weapons and the ammunition a year back.