The Hindu : Police chase off unruly youth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 07, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Police chase off unruly youth

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 6. The police chased away a group of youth alleged to be Shiv Sena workers who forcibly stopped vehicles at Kalpalayam junction near Karamana to supply soft drinks and refreshment to women devotees returning after the Attukal pongala festival on Saturday evening.

The Assistant Commissioner (Traffic), Thomaskutty, and two constables suffered minor injuries in stone throwing. The incident occurred at around 4-30 p.m. The traffic along the sector was restored by 5 p.m.

In Pattom, the police discouraged a group of youth, many of them reportedly drunk, who tried to stop vehicles and give refreshment to devotees. The parking of KSRTC buses along the Thampanoor-Overbridge route to take devotees returning after the pongala caused a traffic snarl which lasted for more than an hour.

Two women devotees suffered burn injuries and five fell unconscious during the pongala. The city police have registered 19 cases of loss of gold ornaments on the basis of complaints lodged by women devotees.

An official said that going by the statements of the complainants, nearly 80 sovereigns of gold were reported lost during the pongala. Police suspect that some of the losses could be as a result of theft. Since the police had been vigilant about the movement of men through the crowd of devotees, women could have carried out the thefts, he said.

As many as 1,200 policemen and 200 women constables are on round-the-clock deployment till Sunday afternoon.

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