Fans create ruckus, choke roads after IPL final

Hyderabad: Police in Saifabad resorted to a mild lathi-charge to disperse the supporters of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who were creating a ruckus near the Secretariat, following the team’s victory in the IPL final on Sunday night. This even as Kukatpally police filed a case against 17 youngsters for creating nuisance on the road in an inebriated condition.

A series of videos circulating online showed a large number of fans creating a ruckus near the Secretariat resulting in a massive traffic jam. While some clips showed fans bursting firecrackers, damaging public property, and moving barricades near the Secretariat, others had them climbing on to vehicles and celebrating, affecting regular traffic movement for hours.

“We had to resort to a mild lathi-charge to disperse the crowd. We have, however, not taken anyone into preventive custody or booked any cases so far,” Saifabad inspector A Seethaiah told TOI.

Among the large gathering of crowd, some were seen bursting crackers in the middle of the road, while a few without shirts were seen moving on bikes and constantly honking. There was a group of people who started to damage the barricades set up by the police at the median, and a few others who were seen doing push-ups on the road.

On knowing about the large and frenzied gathering causing traffic jams in and around the Secretariat, police rushed to the spot and started to disperse the crowd using mild lathicharge. It took more than an hour for normalcy to be restored.

Similar celebrations took place at Kukatpally and Ameerpet. In Kukatpally, the local police caught 17 youngsters for unruly behaviour on the road in an inebriated condition. They were made to undergo breath analyser test, and all 17 tested positive. A case was registered against them.