Bokaro, March 16: An allegedly inappropriate picture of a Hindu goddess posted on Facebook fuelled a four-hour battle today between police and religious groups in Bermo, 34km from the steel city, leaving at least 20 people injured and around two dozen vehicles damaged.
The snowballing situation - sparked by police trying to save from mob justice the youth who had posted the image of Durga on the social networking site - brought state home secretary N.N. Pandey and DGP D.K. Pandey rushing from Ranchi. A reinforcement of 200 policemen was also marshalled from various thanas of Bokaro and nearby districts to quell the 500-strong protest.
Bermo police later arrested 25 people for instigating mob violence while the youth, Mohammad Saddam Ansari (22), was taken into custody for disrupting peace.
Two days ago, Saddam, a resident of Kargali Bazaar under Bermo thana, had uploaded an offending image of Durga on his Facebook page that quickly went viral.
A local group reported the matter to Bermo police yesterday, demanding the youth's arrest. Since no action was taken, members of the group whisked away Saddam from his home this morning and thrashed him openly in the market, prompting his kin to inform the police.
A team rushed to Kargali Bazaar and managed to take Saddam into custody, further angering a section of local residents and several Hindu organisations.
By 9.45am, hundreds gheraoed Bermo police station, demanding that Saddam be handed over to them. The mob began pelting bricks and stones at the fragile group of 18 men in uniform at the thana who retaliated with lathis. At least eight policemen were injured.
The number of protesters swelled with time and they targeted passing vehicles on Bermo-Bokaro road. Two trucks were torched, two police jeeps and 18 private vehicles were damaged. An SOS from Bermo OC A.K. Sinha brought forces from Chandrapura, Petarwar, Nawadih, Gomia, Bokaro Thermal and Jaridih thanas rushing. Dhanbad SSP S.K. Jha travelled 80km to rein in the law and order situation in the absence of his Bokaro counterpart who is on leave.
A phalanx of more than 200 policemen in riot gear and firing of over a dozen round of teargas shells finally tamed the army of 500, which had attacked the thana at least thrice, around 2pm. Several protesters were injured in the police retaliation.
Bermo DSP Neeraj Kumar confirmed the 26 arrests, including that of Saddam. "Those involved in the violence have been charged under various sections of the IPC for attack on police, arson, damage to government property, obstructing a government servant from discharging duty among others," the DSP said.
Kumar added that the cyber crime cell would look into Saddam's case. "The youth disrupted peace and hurt sentiments of a particular community, which are both punishable offences. He has been forwarded to Tenughat jail and the case will be looked into by tech cops."
