Rumours about a “beef fest” being planned outside Kerala House here kept the police on their toes on Saturday.
Security was beefed up outside the premises, where the police had in 2015 conducted a “raid” following complaints from an activist of the Hindu Sena that cow meat was being served in the canteen.
A senior police officer said they were informed by someone from Kerala House that members of the Kerala unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would organise a fest there and since the matter was sensitive, preventive action was sought.
“No permission was officially sought from Kerala House. We were told that the organisers of the event would assemble around 6:30 p.m on Saturday. To prevent any untoward incident, we started deployment from 4 p.m. and placed barricades. However, no one came till late evening,” said the officer.
Charges rubbished
NCP spokesperson D. P. Tripathi, however, rubbished the rumours saying the party had no plans to hold such a fest.
