Court grants anticipatory bail to Santhanam

The Madras High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to actor Santhanam in connection with a case filed against him by a builder called Shanmughasundaram and his lawyer Prem Anand.

The duo had lodged a complaint with the Valasaravakkam police that the actor had attacked them. Santhanam has, for his part, refuted their allegations against him.

It all started with Santhanam wanting to build a mall at Kunrathur. Sources claim he chose to assign the task to Shanmughasundaram, a builder, and reportedly gave him a sum of Rs Three crore for the purpose.

However, there seems to have been a delay in building the structure and this is believed to have led to a disagreement between the actor and the builder. Eventually, the agreement between them was cancelled. However, despite the agreement being cancelled the builder, sources claim, did not return the money and kept dilly-dallying.

To sort out the issue, the actor and his manager Ramesh went to meet the builder Shanmughasundaram and his friend, Prem Anand, a lawyer. However, a fight broke out between the two sides and it eventually resulted in a situation where it came to physical blows being delivered to one another.

As a result, both have filed complaints against each other. While Shanmughasundaram and Prem Anand’s police complaint resulted in a case against Santhanam being filed under Sections 294(b), 324 and 506 (1), Santhanam’s complaint against Shanmughasundaram has resulted in a case being filed under Sections 294 (b) and 506(1) against the latter.

It was in response to this complaint against him that Santhanam had sought anticipatory bail.

Granting the anticipatory bail to the actor with conditions for two weeks, the judge ruled that Santhanam would have to sign in a register at the Valasaravakkam police station everyday.