Maddur town in Mandya district saw a near total bandh on Tuesday, September 9, in response to a call given by Hindutva organisations following the protests the previous day.
Most shops in Maddur, excluding medical stores, milk shops and doctors’ clinics, were closed through the day.
The district police had made heavy security arrangements following the protests on Monday against the stone pelting that occurred on Sunday.
District in-charge Minister Cheluvarayaswamy held a peace committee meeting on September 9. Although both Hindu and Muslim leaders had been invited, Hindu leaders boycotted the meeting, according to media reports. Superintendent of Police Mallikarjun Baladandi and Deputy Commissioner Kumar were also present.
Police officers confirmed that a mass immersion of idols would be held in Maddur on Wednesday.
Inspector General of Police (Western Range) MB Boralingaiah addressed the media on September 9 and confirmed that CCTV footage showed that stone pelting did occur and that the police found that the lights being switched off was suspicious.
“The lights were off, so that creates doubts (about what happened). But stones were thrown, that much is clear from the CCTV footage. On the conspiracy, we are investigating. We cannot say at this stage that it was pre-planned. But the lights were off, so that creates doubts. The first priority was to get the situation under control,” Boralingaiah said.
To a question on whether stones had been pelted from the mosque, he said, “So far, it appears that no stones were thrown from inside the mosque. According to our information, stones were thrown from a lane near the mosque. We don’t have any videos of CCTV footage that shows stones being thrown from the mosque.”
He said that 22 people had been arrested on the basis of the CCTV footage and remanded to judicial custody. He said that investigation of the stone pelting was underway.
Boralingaiah said that the tensions began during the procession around 7 pm. “There was stone pelting during the incident and retaliation happened after that. There were chances of a riot but within five minutes, our staff dispersed the crowd. After that we deployed more staff, we took all precautions and preventive action to ensure that things don’t go out of control.”
The Ganesha idol was immersed after this incident.
Referring to Monday’s rally, he said that it was taken out in protest against the police dispersal of the crowd.
“For that too we arranged for special bandobast. There were attempts yesterday by protestors to barge into sensitive areas, and to prevent that, we used the minimum required force,” Boralingaiah said.
He said that on Monday, 7 Superintendents of Police, 3 Additional SPs, 10 Deputy SPs, 30 inspectors, 600 head contables (civil), 24 Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) platoons and 10 District Armed Reserve (DAR) platoons, and other quick reaction teams had been deployed to ensure nothing untoward happened.
He said that these security arrangements were extended to September 9 as well, in light of the bandh organised in Maddur and neighbouring towns.
“At night we will have picketing points, naka points, patrolling teams, and striking forces deployed,” Boralingaiah said. He said that the security arrangements would continue for the mass immersion planned for Wednesday.
Prohibitory orders had been issued on Sunday night and will be in force until 6 am on September 10. The liquor ban announced by the Deputy Commissioner would be in place until midnight on September 10.