Three arrested for Malerkotla sacrilege

Sushil Goyal

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 28

The police arrested three men last night in connection with the Malerkotla desecration case. They were identified as Vijay Kumar (46) of Jind (Haryana), now a Delhi resident, Nand Kishor Goldy (52) and his son Gaurav (24) of Taragarh in Pathankot district.

The court of the Subdivisional Judicial Magistrate, Malerkotla, today remanded the trio in police custody till July 5.

Pages of the Quran were found strewn on a road in the Muslim-dominated town on June 24, following which a case was registered under Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC at Malerkotla (City-1) police station.

The accused persons were arrested from a canal bridge near the Ghalaudi gate in Patiala. The police recovered a lighter, allegedly used to burn the cover of the holy book, three pairs of surgical gloves, a 50-gm gold coin, a gold chain, a chain with golden beads, toll plaza receipts and a parking ticket.

Paramraj Singh Umranangal, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patiala Zone, said here today that the police got a tip-off last night that three persons who had torn pages of the Quran at Malerkotla were planning to head for Delhi from Patiala. Inspector Satnam Singh, CIA incharge, Bahadur Singh Wala, and a police party laid a naka near the Ghalaudi gate’s cremation ground and intercepted the jeep-borne trio, he added.

The IGP said Vijay, who had remained in jail in Canada and the US, was the mastermind. He is also a proclaimed offender in a case registered in Gurdaspur district in 2014.

Umranangal claimed that as per the preliminary investigation, the accused persons committed the crime as they were upset over the Dinanagar and Pathankot terror attacks by Pakistani terrorists. He said Vijay had confessed that he was also involved in a Ghaziabad sacrilege case.