Bangalore: In an anti-climax, former Prime Minister H D Devegowda deferred his plans to lead a protest march to Chief Minister S M Krishna's residence on October 28 against alleged police atrocities in his home district of Hassan, after a senior district police official was shifted.

A day after declaring that he would defy prohibitory orders to stage the protest, Gowda said since Krishna had decided to "remove" the official to enable an impartial enquiry into police atrocities on Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) workers and "innocent people", his party decided to put off the agitation.

Hours after Gowda insisted he would go ahead with his protest march, government on October 27 had transferred Hassan district Superintendent of Police Nanjundaswamy and Krishna had dashed off a letter to Gowda with a promise of action on his complaints and an appeal to call off his programme.

Gowda said he was thankful to Krishna to the extent that he had decided to remove the official to allow an impartial probe and that he had promised to take action "as early as possible" after receiving a report from Additional Chief Secretary K K Mishra on the alleged police atrocities.

In his letter on October 27, night Krishna had said that he had taken his four letters "very seriously" and appreciated his "pro-people concern", Gowda noted. "We will wait for Mishra's report and the action government will take".

Alleging collapse of law and order in Hassan district, Gowda had initially announced that he would stage a dharna alone in front of Krishna's residence, following which prohibitory orders were clamped in 1 Km radius around Chief Minister's residence from October 26 to 28.

Accusing Krishna of not acting on his complaints, Gowda said he would defy the prohibitory orders and lead a protest march with 5 to 10 of his party state leaders.

Gowda had also expressed his strong displeasure over the police officials of Hassan district and alleged that the law and order there had collapsed to such an extent that the situation there had become "unbearable".

PTI