Bihar govt refutes reports of locals fleeing Sasaram
Amid a police crackdown against miscreants involved in communal clashes after Ram Navami in Sasaram and Nalanda, the state administration has called reports of people fleeing from Sasaram town as false and baseless.
HT Image
"These are all rumours and such reports are all false. We refute it," said Dharmendra Kumar, district magistrate of Rohtas, where Sasaram is located. There has been no such case of people leaving their homes out of fear in the Sasaram after the clashes in past two days, he said. "Such reports are all fake."
Asked about a video showing people leaving homes, Kumar said the matter would be looked into . "We will verify the video and take suitable action. Right now, our priority is to maintain law and order," he said. Chief secretary Amir Subhani also said the state administration would look into the veracity of the video and take necessary action.
Rohtas and Nalanda police have appealed to people not to be swayed by rumours. On Sunday, chief minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting with top officials, including Subhani and Bihar police chief R S Bhatti, to take stock of the situation. The miscreants should be identified and brought to book, the chief minister directed, also asking the administration to keep strict vigilance on those spreading rumours.
Earlier in March, a video of migrant labourers allegedly being attacked by locals in two cities of Tamil Nadu had led to a face-off between the state government and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. The government sent a team of officials to Tamil Nadu and it described the video to be false. Complaints were lodged in Bihar and Tamil Nadu, following which the economic offences wing arrested a YouTuber named Manish Kashyap on charges of spreading rumours and sharing fake videos.
Reacting to the clashes between communities after the Ram Navami celebrations, the chief minister on Saturday had said such clashes were unnatural and claimed such violence was done deliberately by some people to disturb peace. Clashes during the Ram Navami celebrations were a conspiracy to defame Bihar, Chittaranjan Gagan, spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, had said. The situation in Sasaram was far from normal, BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand claimed, asserting that reports of people from one community fleeing their homes were being shown in visuals on several media channels. "Why hasn't the administration then lodged FIRs against the channels and media houses showing such visuals?" he asked.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A journalist for 21 years, Anirban covers RJD, legislature and government beats.
Has extensive experience in covering elections and writes regularly on finance, land reforms, registration, excise and socio-economic issues.
