Bihar government orders DCs to conduct probe into clashes during Saraswati idol immersion

Patna: The Bihar Home Department on Tuesday asked Divisional Commissioners to conduct a thorough investigation into the clashes that occurred between two communities or groups of people during immersion of Goddess Saraswati idols recently in their respective jurisdiction.

Additional Chief Secretary Home Department S Siddharth in a letter dated February 20 to all Divisional Commissioners maintained that guidelines issued for granting permission for taking out religious processions were not strictly followed by the authorities concerned.

"Investigations should be completed on a priority basis and appropriate action must be initiated against erring government officials. It appears that the guidelines were not strictly followed by the authorities concerned (district administrations) while granting permission for taking out the immersion processions of Goddess Saraswati recently. This resulted in clashes between two communities/groups in certain parts of the district."

"Incident of clashes has an adverse impact on the communal harmony in the affected areas. As per the existing guidelines, there is a complete ban on DJs in religious processions. Besides, no one in the procession is allowed to carry any form of weapons, be it a lathi or a sword," said the letter.

It said, "Authorities had already been directed to take prior undertakings from the organisations concerned before granting them permission/authorisation to take out processions for strictly adhering to the prescribed guidelines. But it appears that these guidelines were not followed by district authorities while granting permission."

Clashes between two groups were reported from different districts during the Saraswati idol immersion last week. More than 10 people had sustained minor injuries in the clashes that broke out in Darbhanga district in the wake of Saraswati idol immersion.

Following the incident, the state Home Department through a circular, had also suspended transmission of messages through various Social Networking Sites and Instant messaging Services in Darbhanga till February 19.

The district police had arrested more than 50 suspects for clashes in different parts of Darbhanga. A similar incident was also reported from the Lodipur area of Bhagalpur district last week.