Bengaluru, Aug 22 (IANS): As many as 50 people have been arrested in Karnataka's Koppal district for a celebration in a temple, resulting in five people testing Covid positive as the pandemic rages in the state, an official said on Friday.

"We have arrested 50 people, registering two cases. Out of the 50, five have turned Covid positive," Koppal Superintendent of Police G. Sangeetha told IANS.

The five have been shifted to a Covid Care Centre (CCC) while the rest of them were produced in a local court.

"The court ordered the arrested people to be shifted to Raichur jail because Koppal jail was already overloaded and social distancing cannot be maintained," she said.

Police arrested these people for rioting and violating the norms under multiple sections of the IPC. They were also booked for damaging a police vehicle.

A meeting was being held under the chairmanship of the local tehsildhar along with the Muzrai department when the incident occurred at the Subramanya Swamy temple.

As the meeting was being held, suddenly these 50 people rose up, claiming that some divine spirit descended onto them and broke into a celebration, while carrying the palanquin.

"They said God came onto them when they lifted the palanquin and couldn't resist the divine power," she said.

Despite the police trying to resist the mob, they ran around with the palanquin.

Later, the local police inspector and tehsildhar stopped the celebration to return the palanquin to the temple, which they locked and initiated their process of booking the accused.