NAGPUR: In a turn of events that seemed straight out of a movie script, a notorious drug smuggler was arrested during a late-night screening of the much-anticipated blockbuster, Pushpa 2: The Rule, at a multiplex in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
At around midnight on Thursday, police launched a swift operation, storming the cinema hall and apprehending Vishal Meshram, a gangster with a long criminal record that includes 27 cases, some of which involve charges of murder and drug trafficking.
The dramatic arrest in front of stunned moviegoers caught everyone by surprise, though authorities quickly reassured the audience they could continue watching the film after the operation was completed.
Meshram had been evading law enforcement for nearly 10 months, but his interest in the newly released film turned out to be his undoing.
Acting on a reliable tip-off, officers from the Pachpaoli police station used cyber surveillance to track his movements and pinpoint his location.
They soon identified his vehicle parked outside the theatre.
To prevent him from fleeing, the police deflated the tyres of his sports utility vehicle (SUV) before executing their plan to arrest him inside the cinema.
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The arrest was timed precisely with the climax of Pushpa 2: The Rule, where Meshram was engrossed in the action-packed scenes on the screen.
Officers swiftly surrounded him, ensuring there was no chance for resistance, and took him into custody without any further incident.
Meshram, known for his violent tendencies and history of attacking law enforcement officers, now finds himself behind bars at Nagpur Central Jail.
Plans are in place to transfer him to a prison in Nashik for further detention.
Pushpa 2: The Rule, starring Allu Arjun, is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2021 hit Pushpa: The Rise. Released on December 5, the film has garnered a massive following, with dubbed versions available in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, and Malayalam.
For the audience at this particular screening in Nagpur, the evening unfolded like a real-life thriller where fiction and reality collided in a most unexpected way.
