Devotees climb up to Pahari mandir to pray to Lord Shiva in Ranchi on Monday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, Aug. 2: Putting to rest all speculations, director- general of police Neyaz Ahmed today ruled out the possibility of terror attack on the Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar, especially during the ongoing Shravani mela.

He maintained that there was no need to beef up security at the temple as a large number of police personnel were already deputed there.

“Neither the Centre’s Intelligence Bureau nor our own intelligence sources have alerted us about the possibilities of terror attack on the Deoghar temple. Over 3,000 police personnel have been posted in and around the temple. Therefore, there is no necessity for special measures at the moment,” Ahmed told the reporters on Saturday.

He was responding to a query on reports published in a section of newspapers that terrorists could target the temple during the festivities in the holy month of Shravan.

Replying to another question, the DGP confirmed that while examining the disproportionate assets cases against former ministers, the vigilance bureau was sharing information and documents with the Enforcement Directorate and other investigating agencies.

Consequently, the findings of the vigilance bureau were incorporated in the ED’s chargesheet and vice versa.

DGP Neyaz Ahmed

He also added that former chief minister Madhu Koda had been extending full cooperation to the sleuths since the investigations began. “He did turn up for interrogations, whenever we called him. Now he is in jail. The law is taking its usual course in all the cases,” Ahmed said.

On reports of irregularities in Jharkhand Public Service Commission, he said so far, only the cases of such candidates had been examined who had qualified in the second civil services exams.

Initially, only 516 candidates had got through the written tests. But, later 873 were declared to have passed the exams. Reports say this was done to “oblige certain influential” people. Thirty such candidates were called in for interview, whose names did not figure in the first list.

“As many as 15 candidates were made the scapegoat. Twenty candidates should not have qualified the exams. The merit list too was tampered to benefit 34 candidates. While re-examining the answer sheets of 177 candidates, we obswrongly evaluated. We have already sent our report to the state administration,” he added.

On the ongoing anti-Naxalite operations, he said no such step would be taken that might alienate the police from the public, especially in remote villages. He said the police treated the tribals, living in forest villages, as their brothers and sisters. Objecting to the term Operation Greenhunt, Ahmed said it was sending wrong signals to the masses.

Senior officers at the police headquarters said the package provided to Maoists, who surrender with their weapons, was on a par with the one given to militants who surrender in Jammu and Kashmir.