Police heave a sigh of relief

Day ends incident-free as Jayalalitha verdict is pronounced

Bangalore city police breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday as no untoward incidents were reported after the final orders were pronounced in the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha. The police had made fool-proof security arrangements to prevent any untoward incident.

The City police, who had sleepless nights in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on September 23 and 24, had to be extra cautious this time round. A senior police official said that though Jayalalithaa also has ‘Z plus’ security, the arrangements proved to be a never-before in the recent past.

The police had turned Parappanna Agrahara Central Prison area into a fortress. Prohibitory Orders were imposed under Section 144 of CrPC around 1 km radius at the prison premises as part of an unprecedented security measures.

The police had posted 2,500 personnel, including 30 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), 20 platoons of City Armed Reserve police (CAR) and also two companies of Border Security Force (BSF).

With Section 144 clamped around the premises, the City police forced the shop keepers all along the Naganthapura-Hosa Road junction to down the shutters for a day. The supporters of Jayalalitha, who had checked in at a few hotels on this stretch had to walk till the main road for food.

The supporters slowly started to scatter with verdict going against their leader on one side and non-availability of food on the other. However, around 500-700 supporters did not move from the roads even after the conviction and quantum of punishment was pronounced.

The police had to resort to a mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd immediately after Jayalalitha’s convoy went past the Naganathapura junction. The crowd also staged a snap protest, holding Jayalalitha’s photo, after the quantum of punishment was pronounced. However, the crowd soon calmed down and stepped back to the service road. For the first time, the police had erected barricades all along 2 kms of stretch between Naganathapura and Hosa Road junction.
 
After the quantum of punishment was pronounced at around 4.30 pm, the Police Commissioner M N Reddi extended the prohibition orders to 5-km radius around the prison premises. The police immediately initiated preventive arrests from one end of the road and picked up at least 100, while the others started heading towards the Hosur main road.

“We want to thank the supporters who obeyed the directions issued to them. We had to proceed with the preventive arrests as it could have been impossible to move them out after 6 pm,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sharatchandra told Deccan Herald.

The buses carrying supporters went till Hosur gate and dropped them at the check post. A senior police officials around 20 supporters refused to get down as they complained that their vehicles had been parked on the Naganathapura road.