The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demands that the Kanchikacherla Police take immediate and necessary action against people who attempted to instigate communal tensions during the Vinayaka idol immersion procession in Paritala Village, Kanchikacherla Mandal, NTR District on September 6. We urge the police and government to take adequate measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
Following reports of communal instigation in Paritala village on the evening of September 6, a two-member team of HRF visited the village on September 7 and spoke with villagers and the Kanchikacherla police.
On the evening of September 6, while a few children were making prayer arrangements at the UCCI Church in the Scheduled Caste (Madiga) locality in the village, a Vinayaka idol immersion procession entered the area and instigators among it started blaring provocative songs through a DJ system attached to the vehicle carrying the idol. The elders of the locality intervened and requested them to stop blaring such songs. At the same time, they also contacted the Kanchikacherla police to attend to the situation. The police, however, did not respond to their first call of distress.
Meanwhile, the communal elements in the procession escalated their provocative behaviour. Rather than heeding to the advice and conducting the procession peacefully, they hurled casteist abuse at them, made obscene gestures, and continued blaring songs at high volume. In the melee, a scuffle broke between both the communities. The police who reached the location in the meanwhile did nothing to control the instigators. It is telling a police constable on duty at the locality chided the locals for objecting to blaring of provocative songs.
We have gathered that communal elements blared such songs near the premises of the old mosque in the village as well on September 5, the day of Milad-ul-Nabi. Villagers told us that this trend started around 2-3 years ago and escalated into a scuffle this year.
When we contacted Kanchikacherla Police inquiring whether they had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the instigators, their response was startling. They informed us that ‘they had settled the issue between the villagers’ and were in the process of registering the complaint. In essence, no complaint has been registered against the instigators.
We demand that the police immediately register a complaint under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the instigators.. The government too must take measures to rein in such elements and ensure peace prevails in the village.
Y. Rajesh (HRF Andhra Pradesh State general secretary)
G. Rohith (HRF Andhra Pradesh State secretary)
07.09.2025,
Vijayawada