Workers and devotees maneuver an idol of Goddess Durga during the immersion ritual in the Hooghly river (Ganga) following Durga Puja celebrations, in Kolkata. (Source: PTI)

The police have no role in deciding who can participate in the immersion of Durga idols, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Nand said on Friday.

Asked at a press conference at Kolkata Police Headquarters on Friday about Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s recent remark on allowing “only Sanatanis to touch the idol” during immersion, Nand said the the puja committees, and not the police, were responsible for deciding who takes part in rituals.

“Police have no role in who comes for immersion. Police only look after law and order. The puja committees decide among themselves who will come for the immersion… It has always been done like that,” Nand said.

Asked how the authorities would identify those who follow the Sanatan faith, Nand said it was not the police’s responsibility to determine that.

“I cannot say how that will be decided.…