Jharkhand government has sought an explanation from Ranchi senior superintendent of police (SSP) Surendra Kumar Jha for putting up posters of suspects involved in the violent protest on June 10 demanding the arrest of now-axed BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal who had made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed.
Principal home secretary Rajiv Arun Ekka, who is also principal secretary of chief minister Hemant Soren, had in a letter issued to the SSP on Wednesday and released by the state public relations department around 11pm the same day stated: “This is not lawful and is against the order dated March 9, 2020 passed by Hon’ble High Court, Allahabad.”
The letter directed the SSP to submit his clarification within two days of receipt of the same.
The release issued by the state public relation department further added: “The Hon’ble Court had directed the state of Uttar Pradesh not to put up posters containing personal information of persons without legal authority on the roadside. This matter is nothing but an undue interference in the privacy of the people. Therefore, it is a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”
Ranchi police had on Tuesday morning released the posters of around 30 people allegedly involved in the violent protests on Friday, which resulted in two youths getting killed allegedly in police firing and over two dozen, including police personnel, were injured. The posters had contact numbers of senior police officials and requested people to provide information about the suspects.
The move came a day after Governor Ramesh Bais had summoned Jharkhand DGP Neeraj Sinha and other senior officials including SSP at Raj Bhavan, and raised questions as to why preventive measures or action to disperse the crowd were not taken during the agitation and asked them to put up posters of those involved in the violence in public places so that people can provide their information to the police.
However, barely hours after putting up the posters in Ranchi on Tuesday, the police had taken them off from various parts of the state capital, citing “technical flaws”.
On Tuesday evening, JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya addressed the media accusing the governor of meddling into state executive affairs.
“The governor is the custodian of the Constitution. On the other hand, law and order is a state subject and looked after by the state government. So, in a sense, he tried to meddle into the executive affairs of the state which is not right,” alleged Bhattacharya, adding that putting up posters would further flare up the tense situation.
Congress Jharkhand unit president Rajesh Thakur also questioned the governor’s move on instructing senior administrative officers to put up posters of the suspects in public. “The Jharkhand government had already set up a two-member committee to probe the incident, while the district administration was arresting the accused one by one.
The governor’s job is to give suggestions to the government, which the latter will implement through appropriate channels,” Thakur had said to the media on Wednesday.
So far, 29 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence, and prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC are still in force in a few sensitive pockets of Ranchi.
Security deployments have been increased near religious places in view of the Friday prayers.
On Thursday, Jharkhand High Court agreed to hear a PIL on Friday demanding National Investigation Agency's (NIA) investigation in the Ranchi violence and sought a government reply before the hearing.