Hyderabad: It wasn’t me. In a case of mistaken identity, as he was widely reported as having fired an airgun over an argument at Shamirpet on Saturday, TV serial actor Manoj sought to clear the confusion on Saturday.
In fact, it was a software professional named Manoj who allegedly fired the airgun. However, as news broke about the incident, speculations went rife on the identity of the person and it ended up getting widely circulated it was actor Manoj.
This resulted in the actor clarifying that he was being reported wrongly in the incident and stating that in fact he was Bengaluru and not in Hyderabad.
According to the police, Siddharth and Smritha Das alias Shruthi were married around 20 years ago and in 2019, the woman filed a petition for divorce. The couple have two children, a boy aged around 17 years, and a girl aged around 13 years, and both the children were staying with their mother at Shamirpet.
Since last few months, Shruthi is reportedly been with one person Manoj, both of whom have started a software company. On Saturday, Siddharth came to Shamirpet to take away his daughter as the children complained that Manoj was beating her.
“When Siddharth came to take away the girl an argument ensued between Siddharth, Manoj and Shruthi. During the quarrel, Manoj took out an airgun and allegedly shot in the air twice and aimed at Siddharth,” said DCP Medchal, G Sandeep.
Siddharth called the police on Dial 100 and the police seized the weapon and took up the investigation. Shruthi in her statement to the police alleged that Siddharth had threatened her when he came to their place leading to the quarrel and the firing.
Three months ago, Siddharth’s son had complained to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) about the alleged harassment and torture of Manoj to his sister. The CWC took up the case and the children were to appear before them later this month.