The Bengaluru Police on Sunday said they had decided not to grant permission for a New Year’s event featuring a performance by actor Sunny Leone, The Hindu reported. The event was to take place at White Orchid hotel in Manyata Tech Park.

“On December 31, all our personnel will be busy with bandobast duty,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said. “We decided not to permit the event keeping in mind the law and order situation.”

Members of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Yuve Sene, a pro-Kannada group, protested outside the event’s venue on Friday, claiming that Leone’s performance would “spoil Kannada culture.” They had threatened to commit mass suicide if the event went ahead because her performance would “spoil the Kannada culture”.

But Kumar said on Sunday that these threats had nothing to do with the police department’s decision not to allow the event.

Harish, the managing director of Time Creations, the agency organising the event, told The Hindu that the company would try to convince the police department that the event had no obscene content. “But if our attempts fail, money paid for the tickets will be refunded,” he said.