BELAGAVI: The Belagavi Police Commissionerate will book cases against the protesters who raised anti-Karnataka slogans at the rally organised by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi in Belagavi on Thursday.
Police said that about 300 people could be booked under the IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, language etc) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) for raising slogans Jai Maharashtra and anti-Karnataka slogans during the procession.
DCP Amarnath Reddy said that the permission for the MES rally was issued on many conditions including the members should respite from raising ‘Jai Maharashtra’ slogans during the procession.
The said condition was put to maintain linguistic harmony and to avoid any untoward incidents as the rally was passing by the heart of the city, he said.
“We are analysing the video footage and so far about hundred protesters have been identified. By Friday we shall have a clear picture,” Reddy told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena ministers from Maharashtra cabinet Diwakar Ravoot and Deepak Savant were stopped by the state police at Koganolli RTO checkpost in Chikkodi taluk on the Pune-Bengaluru Highway.
The police explained to them about the restriction on their entry into the state and also showed the ban order which was issued by the Belagavi Deputy Commissioner on Wednesday night.
The ministers claimed that they did not know about the ban order and went back to Kolhapur.
Ravoot said that being a minister of a state, he had to follow the orders of other states and help maintain law and order. He said he and Savant were supposed to address the rally as per the direction of their party high command. Both the ministers were assigned to attend the rally by party supremo Uddhav Thackeray.
Poor response to rally
The public meeting and rally of pro-Maharashtrians outfits got a poor response as about a 2,000 participated against the expected crowd of 20,000.
MLAs taken to task
As both the MLAs Sambhaji Patil and Aravind Patil did not raise ‘Jai Maharashtra’ slogans after completing their speeches, many participants in the rally took them to task after meeting ended. However, they did not get a reply.