Dhanbad (Jharkhand) | The police have begun searching for a man who allegedly placed a large poster bearing the photograph of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on a road in Dhanbad, an officer said on Wednesday.

The poster was placed in the middle of the road near Randhir Verma Roundabout on Tuesday, following which vehicles were driven over it, Dhanbad Police Station Officer-in-Charge Manoj Pandey told PTI.

The ruling JMM's Dhanbad city unit president Mantu Kumar Chouhan lodged a complaint with the police against unidentified miscreants in this regard.

"The complainant alleged that the miscreants attempted to tarnish the chief minister's image by that action," the police officer added.

"We immediately started investigations. Shopkeepers near the site at Randhir Verma Chowk informed us that a middle-aged, mentally deranged man was seen placing the poster in the middle of the road. We are trying to trace that man," Pandey added.

Chouhan told PTI that they came to know about the incident from social media posts.

"The manner in which the large poster has been placed on the road suggests it has been done deliberately to tarnish the image of the chief minister," the JMM leader said.