[7] At 5:00 pm, when Muslims were gathering for evening prayers at the neighbouring Jama Masjid, the procession had not yet departed from the city's central Talab Chowk area.

[12][13][14] The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said the government would take "strict action" against the rioters.

[20] On the day of Ram Navami, large processions called Shobha Yatras were held by the Sangh Parivar Hindu nationalists across India, and numerous Hindu–Muslim clashes occurred.

[21][22][23] The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holding power in India has been blamed for the religious polarisation that led to the clashes.

[27] Opposition parties accused it of having made efforts to instigate communal violence in order to regain political advantage.

[6] On 10 April 2022, their procession began at the Talab Chowk area, the location of the town's jama masjid,[a] at around 11:00 am and ended at the Ram temple by noon without incident.

[27] However, the BJP state vice-president Shyam Mahajan was unhappy that the police had barricaded the Muslim localities near Talab Chowk.

[27] The Gauraksha Samiti (literally "Cow Protection Society") of Khargone was reportedly formed in 2019, after the BJP losses in the Legislative Assembly elections.

The film's climactic scene of a Hindu woman being cut up by a mechanical saw was recreated with makeshift devices and placed on a tractor trolley.

The back of the trolley displayed a picture of Anupam Kher's character in the film along with the slogan, "Wake up Hindus, lest other states in India become Kashmir."

[28] Video recordings showed disc jockeys playing raucous music and processionists spilling over into nearby streets, some waving Ram Rajya flags.

"We had made elaborate preparations for this year's Ram Navami, but at the Talab Chowk, stones were thrown at us, forcing us to defend ourselves.

"Previously, we have notified the government and written to the PMO that the Talab Chowk near the Jama Masjid is a sensitive zone," he added.