‘Muslim-hater’ among 3 held for Quran sacrilege at Malerkotla

Police say the trio wanted to start a communal riot for “avenging” the Gurdaspur and Pathankot terror attacks by Pakistani intruders in July 2015 and this January 2, respectively. Main accused Vijay Kumar of Jind in Haryana is Canada-returned and his alleged accomplices Nand Kishore Goldy and his son, Gaurav, are from Begowal village in Taragarh area of Pathankot district. “Vijay is self-styled radical activist not affiliated with any Hindu group,” said Patiala range inspector general of police Paramraj Singh Urmranangal.

A businessman who is known to be a Pakistan-basher is among three men under arrest on the charges of burning Islamic holy book Quran at Malerkotla, which sparked violence in Punjab’s only Muslim-dominated town on June 24. Police say the trio wanted to start a communal riot for “avenging” the Gurdaspur and Pathankot terror attacks by Pakistani intruders in July 2015 and this January 2, respectively.

Patiala range inspector general of police Paramraj Singh Urmranangal (centre), at a press conference in Sangrur on Tuesday, said main accused Vijay Kumar of Jind in Haryana is Canada-returned and his alleged accomplices Nand Kishore Goldy and his son, Gaurav, are from Begowal village in Taragarh area of Pathankot district. “Vijay is a self-styled radical activist not affiliated with any Hindu group as such.” (HT Photo)

Main accused Vijay Kumar of Jind in Haryana is Canada-returned and his alleged accomplices Nand Kishore Goldy and his son, Gaurav, are from Begowal village in Taragarh area of Pathankot district. “Vijay is a self-styled radical activist not affiliated with any Hindu group as such,” said Patiala range inspector general of police Paramraj Singh Urmranangal.

READ I 8 injured as mob clashes with police after Quran ‘sacrilege’ at Malerkotla

Vijay is claimed to have been behind similar violence at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. “He is full of fundamentalist opinion and spite for Muslims. A bachelor, now based at Palm Colony in Delhi, he has made a lot of money in the bio-fertiliser business, of which he has nearly 150 agencies in Punjab and Haryana. We are looking deeper into his background,” said the IG. Vijay also faces criminal charges of cheating his business agents.

Police claim to have recovered the lighter that Vijay had allegedly used to set the sacred text ablaze. They have seized three pairs of surgical gloves, a 50-gram-gold coin, a gold chain, and a white-gold-bead chain.

After the sacrilege on the night of June 24, Muslim mobs had damaged a dozen-odd vehicles, tried to burn down the house of Malerkotla’s Akali legislator Farzana Nissara Khatoon, and even injured two senior police officers.