Following the violence that erupted between members of the Muslim community and the Ranchi police on June 10 over the “blasphemous” remarks on Prophet Muhammad by now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, posters of rioters with photographs were released on Tuesday.
The posters were released after Governor Ramesh Bais summoned Director General of Police (DGP) Neeraj Sinha, Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police Surendra Kumar Jha and Deputy Commissioner Chhavi Ranjan along with other senior officials on Monday and raised questions as to why preventive measures or action to disperse the crowd were not taken during the recent violent protests in Ranchi that claimed two lives and left over two dozen people injured.
“Why didn’t you use a water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas. There was no provision for these things there. Why?” Governor Bais asked the senior police and administrative officials.
“What information did the administration have about the proposed event, picketing, demonstration, procession and what arrangements you had made. You have IB, CID and what inputs did the special branch give? How many security personnel and magistrates were present there during the operation of the procession? Why didn’t you take any preventive action?” questioned the governor.
The governor asked why police officers and personnel were not even wearing helmets and protective gear.
“How many arrests have been made so far? How many FIRs have been registered? Find out details of all protestors and those who have been caught, make their names/addresses public, make their hoardings by displaying their photographs at main places in the city so that public could also identify them and help police,” the governor told the officials.
“All such people need to be identified and punished,” Bais said.
Jharkhand High Court on June 9 had initiated a suo motu public interest litigation on the killing of Manpreet, a witness in a criminal case, and had directed the state to inform whether it has a witness protection policy.
After the violent protests in Ranchi, security has been tightened in sensitive areas and 25 FIRs have been registered against “thousands” of people.
(The story has been edited with inputs from the News Desk )
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