Near stampede situation at Khairatabad forced police to stop the distribution of ‘laddu’ and use mild force to disperse the crowd here on Friday.
One person, who was distributing the ‘laddu’ standing atop a dais, sustained injuries in the commotion. He was taken to a hospital for treatment and discharged later. The ‘laddu’ weighing nearly 6,000 kilos made at Tapeshwawram in Andhra Pradesh was brought to Khairatabad to be placed on the palm of the massive Ganesha idol installed every year.
“Usually, 2,000 to 3,000 devotees turn up to receive laddu. This year too, everything went normal for the first two hours when distribution started at 8 a.m.,” central zone DCP V.B. Kamalasan Reddy told The Hindu .
The crowd started swelling by 10 a.m. and devotees suddenly surged towards the dais breaking the steel barricades. As the situation went out of control, police used mild force. As the broken barricades couldn’t be restored immediately, the police decided to stop the distribution midway. “Local Ganesha committee decided to send the laddu to different temples where it would be distributed to devotees,” the DCP said.