Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, arrested on Friday night on charges of making inflammatory speeches during communal riots in Mysore, has launched an indefinite fast in Bellary jail protesting against his detention, police said.

Efforts to persuade the 46-year-old Muthalik, who stirred a controversy in January with an attack on pub goers in Mangalore by his activists, to eat some food have failed since he started his "fast" on Sunday night, Jail Superintendent P Mallesh told PTI, adding a doctor has been deputed to monitor Muthalik's health.

A court in Mysore had remanded the right wing leader to judicial

custody till August seven and the authorities shifted him to Bellary jail yesterday due to security reasons. The Sene leader was arrested here on Friday for allegedly making speeches hurting sentiments of a particular community during the Mysore communal clashes in the first week of June which left three persons dead. On June 2, communal clashes broke out in Mysore over the alleged defiling of a madrassa. Muthalik had alleged that there was "a conspiracy to throw in jail all those who spoke for Hindus. "As a protest against this, I will go on hunger strike unto death in jail," he had said. The court will hear Muthalik's bail application on Tuesday.