Ranchi Violence Over Prophet Remark- High Court Asks State To File Affidavits On Why SSP Was Transferred

The High Court of Jharkhand on Friday directed the state's home secretary and director general of police to file affidavits explaining why the Ranchi senior superintendent of police, who was investigating last month's violence, has been transferred.

Two people were killed and two dozen others critically injured after violent protests over controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad broke out in the state capital on June 10.

SSP Surender Kumar Jha was probing into the incident. Later, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the case and he was recently transferred.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad was hearing a PIL that claimed the state government is not keen on holding a proper investigation.

A special investigating team was constituted under the SSP for investigating the incident after which the case was handed over to the CID, the petitioner's counsel told the Bench.

In an oral observation, the Bench said that the state has changed the SSP recently and has not done any major work on the matter.

The Court directed Home Secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka and Director General of Police Neeraj Sinha to file their respective affidavits. The Bench also asked the government why eyewitnesses to the incident have not been shown the CCTV footage to identify the perpetrators of the violence.

Violent protests rocked Ranchi on June 10 over controversial remarks by now-suspended BJP leaders against Prophet Mohammad.

With PTI inputs