Violating the lockdown norms, a festival was held at the local Shiva temple in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district on Thursday. A large number of devotees had gathered in Kalaburagi for the fare, violating social distancing norms. In the wake of the incident, the Kalaburagi district police have arrested five people.
The Kalaburagi police arrested five organisers in connection with the event on Friday, TOI reported, while sub-inspector Vijayakumar Bavi attached with the Wadi Police Station has been suspended pending inquiry on allegations of allowing the festival to be held.
“At around 6.30am, around 100 to 150 people had come near Siddalingeshwara Temple for about 20 minutes and took part in a chariot pulling procession. We have registered a case against 20 people and have arrested five of the organisers so far for violating lockdown rules,” Kalaburagi SP Iada Marbaniang said.
In addition, the district administration has suspended the Chittapur Child Development Project Officer Rajkumar Rathod, who was the designated sectoral magistrate in charge of surveillance in the area.
According to CNN News18, the festival is conducted annually and the temple authorities had submitted a written commitment to the district administration and the police that the festival would not be conducted this time.
Kalaburagi SP said that the temple authorities had submitted the written letter after SI Vijayakumar had persuaded them to do so. “The temple’s management committed to not conducting the event and went ahead with it anyway. Our SI had spoken to them and tried to reason with them by explaining about the lockdown and the ban on religious gatherings,” he added.
Generally, the function is conducted in the evening. However, the SP said that it was held early in the morning to avoid police intervention, he added.
Kalaburagi is one of the major COVID-19 hotspots in Karnataka. As of Friday evening, the district reported 20 positive cases with 14 active ones. The district has reported three deaths so far. Kalaburagi is also the district that witnessed the first death due to coronavirus infection in the country.