June 10 violence in Ranchi: Jharkhand Police takes down posters of accused citing 'technical errors'

Ranchi: In connection with June 10 violence in Ranchi, as many as 29 persons have been arrested on Wednesday, according to police, which arrested 6 people in the case earlier on Tuesday. "All 6 persons arrested are named accused in the case. These accused are brought to Kotwali PS from different parts of Ranchi and interrogation is going on," Superintendent of Police in Ranchi Anshuman Kumar tol ANI. After Friday prayers on June 10, a protest erupted in Ranchi against the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad made by suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled leader Naveen Jindal. Two people died and several others sustained injuries as the protest turned violent. 

Jharkhand Police on Tuesday released posters of those allegedly involved in the June 10 violent protests in Ranchi, and urged people to help identify them, but it took them down from various parts of the capital city citing "technical flaws". 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. 

A PTI report said that 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.

Sources said the posters were released after an elaborate exercise involving technical experts and photojournalists. Police officials' numbers for providing information about the whereabouts of the agitators were mentioned in the posters.

Meanwhile, the ruling JMM strongly objected to the issuing of posters, saying there was no need for it as police already has 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," PTI quoted JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya as saying. 

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 Governor Ramesh Bais that as per an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report, a turnout of only 150 people was expected during the protest. However, thousands of people had taken part in the violent protest. 

(With Agency Inputs)