Karnataka minister Sa Ra Mahesh and Tumakuru Superintendent of police Divya Gopinath engaged in a spat during the funeral of Siddaganga mutt seer Shivakumara Swami, leaving the woman police official in tears.

Video footage aired by TV channels showed Gopinath preventing the minister from entering the mutt, where the 111-year-old seer was laid to rest in Tumakuru on Tuesday, as there was restriction on the number of people allowed inside.

When Mahesh insisted to go inside the mutt, the police official told him that the building could not accommodate more people.

According to eyewitnesses, the state tourism minister abused Gopinath, leaving her in tears. The footage shows a visibly upset Gopinath wiping her tears.

The minister, however, refuted the allegations and said he never uttered any foul word. “I only said do not create any nuisance there. I did not abuse anybody. My only objection was that how could a minister be denied entry into the hall when all the other MLAs and ministers were allowed,” Mahesh said.

Gopinath termed it a “small incident” due to lack of space during the funeral. “Space was less and we wanted maximum number of people to get in for darshan, hence some inconvenience was caused to the minister and some devotees for few minutes. It was resolved,” she was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

First Published: Jan 24, 2019 13:51 IST