The East Singhbhum administration plans to lodge police cases against those who held a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in front of the district collectorate here on Thursday.

Around 100 activists of the CPI-ML, AISF and Jharkhand Jantantrik Sabha had marched from Sakchi roundabout to the district collectorate where they had burnt copies of the CAA.

“It is surely a violation of Section 144 (of the CrPC) which prohibits illegal assembly of persons without permission due to imposition of model code of conduct in view of the Assembly polls,” Dalbhum sub-divisional officer Chandan Kumar told The Telegraph on Friday. “We have asked East Singhbhum SSP (senior superintendent of police) Anoop Birtharay to start the process of lodging FIRs against those who had staged the agitation for nearly an hour in front of the district collectorate.”

District administration sources said that the magistrate on duty, additional district magistrate (law and order) Nandkishore Lal, was taking the help of CCTV footage to identify the protesters.

“We have received the administration order and are waiting for the magistrate report which would be presented in the CJM (chief judicial magistrate) court in a day or two for lodging of cases against individuals under Section 195 of the CrPC (prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servant) and Section 188 of the IPC (disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant),” SSP Birtharay said. “We have come to know that none of the organisations had taken permission for holding the protest march.”

The administration on Friday deployed a large number of security personnel outside major mosques to avoid any incident or protest.

A proposed march by the Jharkhand Jantantrik Sabha was also cancelled citing the model code of conduct.