J'khand police remove posters of Ranchi violence accused after JMM objection

Hours after putting up posters of those allegedly involved in the recent violent protests in Ranchi, the Jharkhand police on Tuesday took them down from various parts of the capital city citing 'technical flaws.'

Even as the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha opposed the police's move, the law enforcers said the errors would be rectified and the posters put up again.

The police had released the posters of around 30 people allegedly involved in the June 10 violent protests in Ranchi that claimed two lives and left two dozen people injured. They sought information about the accused.

The move came a day after Governor Ramesh Bais summoned DGP Neeraj Sinha and other senior officials at Raj Bhavan and during the meeting, raised questions as to why preventive measures or action to disperse the crowd were not taken during the agitation against controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad.

"We had released photographs of people involved in the violence, seeking public support for their identification. However, Ranchi district police took those down due to some technical flaws. The posters would be released again after rectifying the issues," Jharkhand police spokesperson and IG (operations) Amol V Homkar told PTI.

Efforts are underway to identify around 30 people who were involved in the violence, he said.

The police said that 29 people have been arrested so far in connection with the violent protest.

Sources said the posters were released after an elaborate exercise involving technical experts and photojournalists.

The police officials' numbers for providing information about the whereabouts of the agitators were mentioned in the posters.

Meanwhile, JMM strongly objected to the issuing of posters, saying there was no need for it as the police already have ample information about the protesters and the move may create further unrest.

"The action taken by Jharkhand police was in haste. It was taken after the governor's directive. This move might create social division. We object to the posters as those were totally unwarranted.

"The Allahabad high court had also asked the Uttar Pradesh government to take down hoardings of those booked in cases of alleged vandalism and arson linked to protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Lucknow," JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said.

On Monday, the governor had questioned why police personnel were not wearing protective gear during the protests, how many arrests were made and what action was taken against rumour-mongers. He asked police to release posters of those involved in the violent protests so that they can be identified.

He had also raised questions as to why water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas were not used to control the situation.

The director general of police had informed Bais that as per an Intelligence Bureau report, a turnout of only 150 people was expected during the protest. However, thousands of people had taken part in the violent protest.