Cancelled try-outs lead to violence

A posse of policemen had to be rushed to Kamani Auditorium in central Delhi to control a large group of youngsters who had gathered to participate in an audition for a reality television show on Monday morning, police said.

A posse of policemen had to be rushed to Kamani Auditorium in central Delhi to control a large group of youngsters who had gathered to participate in an audition for a reality television show on Monday morning, police said.

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The situation took a turn for the worse when the television channel called off the auditions, citing paucity of space, as the auditorium had a capacity to accommodate only 600 persons.

The youngsters had gathered to participate in a reality show- Dance Premier League being organized by Sony Entertainment Television.

A crowd of more than 2000 people had turned up for the dance reality show, police said. "The organisers decided to call off the audition as the number of participants were more than expected and they did not have the necessary requirements for the audition," said Shankar Dash, additional commissioner of police (New Delhi). As the organisers decided to cancel the audition, the participants, many of them who had come from other coming states, protested and shouted slogans against them.

Police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control before it turned ugly, the officer said.

However, some of the participants alleged they werelathicharged by police. Refuting the allegations, the officer said no force was used by police and they had gone there without any lathi (wooden staff) or weapon.

"As huge number of youngsters had gathered for the audition we could not have used force on them. We made announcements and made them understand the limitation of the organizers. No force was used. None of the men were carrying any weapon. The situation was brought under control peacefully," said the officer.