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Ludhiana:18-year-old school dropout arrested for Tibba Road sacrilege
A day after torn pages of Gutka Sahib and Sanchi Sahib were found on Tibba Road, police claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of a teenager.
A day after torn pages of Gutka Sahib and Sanchi Sahib were found on Tibba Road, police claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of a teenager.
The accused, identified as Sewa Singh, 18, had allegedly thrown the torn pages of Gutka Sahib and Sanchi Sahib in the fields and then informed the members of a local gurdwara committee himself, to “make a sensational news report” out of it. The accused, a resident of Grewal Colony, here, is a school dropout and has been working as a freelancer for an online web channel ‘Punjab Star Daily for the last four years.
Due to “poor content”, the channel refused to telecast any news or information given by him, following which he hatched the conspiracy to make a “sensational news” by desecrating the holy books. The police have recovered the torn pages of Gutka Sahib and Sanchi Sahib from his house. Police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said the accused had even shot some videos of the torn pages of holy books. Before he could edit it, the police had arrested him.
The police chief said that on Monday evening, Baldev Singh, president of a gurdwara at Tibba road informed the police about the torn pages of Gutka Sahib lying in a field.
“The teenager claimed that he had seen two motorcycle-borne turbaned men escape after throwing the torn pages in the field. When the police scanned CCTVs installed in the area, they did not spot any such incident. The cops became more suspicious when the accused started continuously changing his statements,” said the police chief. “The accused later confessed to committing the crime. He stated that he wanted to make sensational news so he had torn the pages of the holy book and thrown it in the fields,” he added.
The police chief added that the accused had recently converted into a Sikh. He had purchased some holy books from a shop outside Gurdwara Sahib and also joined a religious WhatsApp group. A case under Sections 295-A (malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings ) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been lodged against the accused at Tibba police station.
The police are investigating the involvement of other persons in the matter. The police have also called a forensic team from Chandigarh for investigation. On Tuesday morning, the locals had staged a peaceful protest against the incident.
