The Chief Minister’s office has directed the Faizabad administration to be sagacious in its campaign to identify local residents and not harass bonafide residents and sadhus of the twin cities of Ayodhya-Faizabad.
The Faizabad administration started an identification campaign where residents were being asked to prove their identity. The campaign was being launched in order to keep a tap on growing number of culprits, hiding in and around Ayodhya dressed as saints.
Sadhus had initially opposed the campaign claiming that police and local administration officials were suspicious about sadhus residing in different muths.
A complaint in this regard was also lodged with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The saints believe that the district administration’s move would trigger panic among the saints which was not good.
An official in CM’s office told ‘The Pioneer’ on Friday that after the complaint, a missive was sent to the Faizabad administration to be judicious towards verification.
“The main point is that the police should not harass locals or sadhus living in temples in the name of verification,” he said.
It is no longer a secret that many times, people guilty of various heinous crimes, come to Ayodhya and start living like saints. The police has earlier investigated on these lines. Many a times, it has come to light that criminals from Bihar and adjoining areas like Nepal were found hiding as sadhus in several mutts and ashrams.
The police has been asking residents to show government-approved verification cards and in case of sadhus, a verification from head of the ashrams where they are staying.
Not all sadhus were against this verification drive. Acharya Satyendra Das of Ram Janam Bhoomi temple came out in support of this saying that it was good as there were people damaging the image of sadhus.
“After finding such people, the police should take strict actions against them. People come here from all parts of India. Even there are people from Nepal,” he said.
“With this step, all fake saints will panic and leave this place. Indian culture is such that people don’t point fingers at saints and this trust should not weaken,” he added.
The police are hopeful that through this step they would be able to trace culprits faster.
“After verification is completed, we will create a database based on it. In case any untoward incident happens in future, we will be able to track down the culprit,” an official said.