Sunburn, the popular electronic dance music festival, was forced to cancel David Guetta’s concert to be held on the night of January 12 in Bengaluru after the authorities denied permission for the event citing a ‘law and order’ situation. The denial of permission comes after a number of incidents of sexual assault on New Year’s Eve were reported to have occurred in the city. The festival organisers issued notices announcing the cancellation of the event on their social media platforms.

#Bengaluru Update for today. Please let your friends know! pic.twitter.com/07hpf09gck — Sunburn Festival (@SunburnFestival) January 12, 2017

On their Facebook page, Sunburn had posted saying, “Due to the present law & order situation in Bengaluru following the events that transpired around New Year’s Eve, the authorities have recommended against holding the David Guetta concert scheduled today in the city. We at Sunburn tried our very best to make it happen but the authorities understandably are not prepared to take any chances. Hence today’s concert unfortunately stands cancelled,”

The post has since been deleted.

Guetta was expected to be on a four-city tour in India, which was to begin in Bengaluru today. The other concerts have been scheduled at Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. Disappointment was obviously expressed on social media following the announcement.

UNBELIEVABLE. Tonight’s @DavidGuetta Bengaluru concert cancelled by organisers on reco from authorities, citing law-order post-molestation. — Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) January 12, 2017

Amit Singh, superintendent of police, Bengaluru Rural, however denied that the concert was cancelled because of a ‘law and order situation’. He told the News Minute that Sunburn had only approached them two days ago for permission, as a consequence of which the police were unable to provide adequate security. He said that Sunburn was asked to find another date because elections for the agricultural produce market committee was scheduled and the police did not have enough personnel for the concert as well. Singh stressed that there was no connection between what happened on new year’s eve and the festival.

In December 2016, the festival had faced opposition from right-wing groups in Pune who had wanted to ban the festival because they thought it encouraged drug use and was antithetical to Indian culture and encouraged obscenity. Harindra Singh, CEO of Sunburn, had pointed out then, “If incidents like drug consumptions take place, law and order authorities would have taken action.”

(with PTI inputs)