Mangaluru: A handful of SDPI workers on Sunday August 15 staged protest for putting Veer Savarkar photo in Independence Rath at Kabaka in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district.

It is said that the Kabaka gram panchayat organized an Independence Rath to mark 75 Independence Day celebration.  The banner in the rath had pictures of freedom fighters Lala Lajpat Rai, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Jhansi queen Lakshmi bai and Savarkar. But enraged over picture of Savarkar, few SDPI workers blocked the way of rath insisting to put Tippu Sultans picture by removing Savarkar picture.

When Kabaka GP president Vinay Kumar Kallega and GP officer tried to defend the action, the workers tried to tear the banner. They raised slogans against GP, and Savarkar. When situation got out of control, Puttur town sub inspector Gopala Naik and staff rushed to the spot and brought it under control.

Puttur MLA Sanjeev Matandur visited Kabaka GP and received the information about incident. Speaking to reporters he said that there are few youths involved in anti-national activity by obstructing independence rath. He said the communal elements from Bhatkal and Kasaragod supported the incident. He instructed police to arrest the youths soon and said that he would speak with home minister Araga Jnanendra to order higher level probe into the incident.