Security tightened at Kirlampudi owing to hunger strike

Check posts have been set up on all roads leading to Kirlampudi in East Godavari district, where Kapu supremo Mudragada Padmanabham is expected to undertake fast-unto-death along with his wife on Friday. Once bitten twice shy, the police have tightened the security in the Tuni area, according to East Godavari Superintendent of Police Ravi Prakash. Ravi Prakash said the police were in strength on the fateful Sunday in Tuni, where there was a sudden eruption of violence. They thought it was a normal meeting and after the meeting the Kapus would go to their homes peacefully. It was not predictable how they would react once the meeting was over. It was also difficult to predict which way they would take. If some Kapu leader had urged the people to go home peacefully, the large-scale arson and violence would not have taken place. But there was no such call from the Kapu leaders. It was this unpredictability of the Kapu meeting that had caught the police by surprise when some 300 people went on to the railway tracks and burnt down the Ratnachal Express before attacking two police stations in Tuni. However, the police managed to protect the main police station in Tuni, Ravi Prakash added. He also claimed that there was no intelligence failure in regard to Tuni violence. It was only the mob mentality and unpredictability of the crowd that had caused all the damage. The SP further added that the police were not going to act high handed. They would only go by hard evidence to effect arrests. He, however, added that no outsiders would be allowed to visit Kirlampudi during the Padmanabham hunger strike.