MADURAI: The district police were on their toes as rumours were rife that Jallikattu was conducted despite Supreme Court ban in the countryside on Saturday.The word reportedly spread through the social media as well as through a few Tamil news channels, and the police said the news was fake.
After the police enquired Rajakalpatti villagers, they detained a reporter of a leading satellite channel, but let him off later.
Ever since the Supreme Court refused to lift the stay on the central government’s notification of allowing Jallikattu, the supporters of the sport and the Tamil activists have been registering their displeasure strongly in the social media including WhatsApp and Facebook.
On Saturday, a video on the successful conduct of the sport at Rajakalpatti near Palamedu was circulated through WhatsApp. The video showed footage of a stage set for the sport, three bulls coming out of ‘Vadivasal’ (entry point for bulls in the bullring), tamers hugging their humps and crowd watching from the terrace of houses located in a street.
As the video did not mention the village name, but only had a ‘Madurai district’ tag, the police personnel were asked to check whether Jallikattu was held in their respective jurisdictions. But after the same video was telecast in the Tamil channel claiming that the sport was conducted in Rajakalpatti, a police team headed to the village, but found it to be a rumour, sources said.
“A few clips were being circulated relating to the sport. On verification, it was found that those clips were of previous years,” the district Superintendent of Police Vijayendra S Bidari told mediapersons. “We did not find anything, including a temple found in the video which gave the impression that it was a well-organised event, but it is not possible during the high-alert situation,” said an official.