The district administration has lodged an FIR against 41 people, including Union Minister Arjun Munda, five BJP MPs and three MLAs, in connection with laying siege to the Secretariat in Ranchi.

Apart from these, thousands of unidentified BJP workers have also been made accused.

The BJP had led a demonstration on Tuesday with the slogan of ‘Hemant Hatao, Jharkhand Bachao’. The protesters broke police barricades in order to gherao the Secretariat.

The police made a lathicharge to stop them and the BJP workers started pelting stones in response.

The ruckus went on for at least three hours and resulted in more than 60 people getting injured.

The saffron party has announced that a Black Day would be observed on Wednesday to protest against the police.

In the FIR registered on the statement of Upendra Kumar, executive magistrate of Ranchi district in the matter, all the accused have been charged with rioting, inciting riots, violating government instructions, obstructing government work, inciting crime and causing harm to other persons.

The FIR stated that the BJP’s Secretariat siege was announced on April 11. For this, the Deputy Commissioner and SSP had jointly issued orders related to the deployment of magistrates, officers and security forces. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 were imposed from 8 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. in the area.

Police personnel and some journalists reporting the incident were injured in the melee. Water canon and tear gas were used to control the crowd.

MP Sanjay Seth, MP Nishikant Dubey, MP Samir Oraon, MP Sunil Kumar Singh, former Chief Minister Raghuvar Das, MLA Amit Mandal, MLA Babulal Marandi, MLA Biranchi Narayan Singh, and others have been mentioned among the accused.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)