An FIR has been registered against 18 people for allegedly tampering with the national flag during the Muharram procession in Jharkhand’s Palamu district, a police officer said on Sunday.

The incident took place under Chainpur police station area, some 175 kilometres from state capital Ranchi, on Friday evening when a procession went through localities such as Shahpur, Kalyanpur and Kankari as part of the mourning festival.

Additional superintendent of police (SP) Rishav Garg said that DJs were played and a “national flag” was waved during the procession. After a video showing the alleged tampering with the flag went viral, the police looked into the issue.

The colours of it were the same as in the national flag, but the Ashoka Chakra was missing, he said.

“In place of the Ashoka Chakra, some words in Urdu were written and there was a sword mark at the bottom. An FIR has been registered under the Preventions of Insults to National Honour Act against 18 people including 13 named people,” Garg said.

Chainpur police station in-charge Rupesh Kumar Dubey said raids are being conducted to nab the accused in the case.

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