RANCHI: An FIR has been registered against 18 people (13 named and 5 other unnamed persons) for allegedly tampering with the national flag during the Muharram procession at Chainpur Police Station in Jharkhand’s Palamu district, a police officer said on Sunday.
According to locals, during the Muharram procession at Kalyanpur-Kankari, the “national flag” was waved during the Muharram procession in which the Ashok Chakra was replaced with some Urdu text with a sword-like sketch under it. Since the flag was prominently waving, photographs and video footage of it were made viral on social media which was taken into cognizance by the local administration. According to police, intensive raids are being conducted to arrest the accused persons on the basis of video footage after lodging an FIR.
“FIR has been lodged against 13 named and 5 unnamed persons under sections 153 (A) (B), 120 (B) and various other sections of insulting the national flag,” said the officer in charge of Chainpur police station Rupesh Kumar Dubey.
The FIR was lodged after the social media post was found to be true during the investigation on the basis of the statement recorded by the Magistrate deployed there to control the law and order situation in the area, he added.
Additional Superintendent of Police Rishabh Garg also informed that the matter of tampering with the national flag was found to be true and an FIR under various sections of insult to the national flag, besides hurting the sentiments of the people, has been lodged against 18 people.