The cases followed an incident on Wednesday night along Railway Station Road in the Gulmi area of Uttara Kannada district, where a procession organised by the Taland Public Ganeshotsava Committee was passing towards the immersion point. Police said complaints from both sides were being investigated and responsibility had not been publicly fixed.
One complaint, filed by Abdul Alim, secretary of the Ismail Sunni Jamiya Mosque, alleged that stones were thrown at the mosque and the Tajus-Sunna Arabic Madrasa housed in the same building. The complaint said two window panes of the madrasa were damaged during the episode.
A counter-complaint filed by Raju, president of the Taland Public Ganeshotsava Committee, alleged that unidentified people standing beside the road threw stones towards the Ganesh procession as it approached the mosque. Police registered separate cases on the basis of the two accounts.
Uttara Kannada Superintendent of Police Deepan M N visited Bhatkal after the incident and said action would be taken against anyone found responsible. Additional police personnel were deployed at sensitive locations while officers examined CCTV footage and other available evidence to establish the sequence of events.
Police also sought to prevent further confrontation after groups gathered near Bhatkal Town Police Station demanding arrests. Senior officers appealed for calm and asked residents to allow the investigation to proceed. The procession was later directed along another route after the immersion to reduce the risk of opposing groups coming into contact.
Ganapati Naik, a Taland resident who was part of the procession, said tensions rose near the mosque after stones were allegedly thrown towards the group. He said some youths in the procession became angry but were persuaded to continue towards the immersion site. His account remains part of the competing claims being examined by investigators.
No police statement reviewed for the incident identified the person or group that initiated the stone-pelting. Authorities have therefore treated the complaints separately rather than attributing responsibility to either community while evidence is collected.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Mahesh Tenginkai, who represents Hubli-Dharwad Central, called for strict action against those responsible and urged the state government to allow police to act firmly. He also criticised the government’s handling of law and order and addressed remarks to minister Priyank Kharge.
Tenginkai said police should be given a “free hand” to curb such incidents during the Ganpati festival and urged authorities to apprehend everyone identified as having taken part in stone-pelting. His comments were a political response to the episode; police have not endorsed his broader claims about the state’s law-and-order situation.
The incident occurred on September 16 between about 9.15 pm and 9.30 pm as the procession moved through the Gulmi railway station road stretch after crossing the railway bridge. The Ismail Sunni Jamiya Mosque and the Tajus-Sunna Arabic Madrasa are situated along that route.
Residents from the Muslim community gathered outside the police station after learning of the alleged damage to the religious premises and demanded action. Police officers, including senior district personnel, spoke to those assembled and urged them to disperse peacefully.
No injuries were confirmed in the police accounts available on the incident, and authorities had not announced any arrests in the material examined by Friday. Investigators continued checking video footage, witness statements and the physical damage cited in the complaints before deciding further action.
The procession had begun at Taland and was proceeding through Gulmi towards the immersion point. After the idol was immersed, police stopped members of the group on their return and informed them that stones had allegedly struck the mosque premises. Officers then diverted the returning participants, a step police and participants said was intended to avoid a face-to-face confrontation while complaints were being recorded at the station.
