JAMMU: Four persons, including two scrap dealers from Kashmir, have been arrested for allegedly dumping religious books of a particular community at their godowns for using them later as raw material for packaging boxes.
“Three scrap dealers, including two from Kashmir Valley, and an accountant working with a Jammu-based scrap dealer were arrested in connection with this. Besides, three godowns have also been sealed,” Additional SP (Samba) Faisal Qureshi said.
“A Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested scrap dealer Sanjay Gupta of Paloura, Jammu. During questioning, Gupta disclosed that he had purchased such books from some scrap dealers in Srinagar,” he said.
Accordingly, the team was sent to Srinagar and two other scrap dealers — Bilal Ahmed and Amir Ahmed — were arrested.
“A godown, belonging to scrap dealer Rakesh Kumar was sealed where these religious books were found dumped,” Qureshi said, adding that Kumar’s accountant Kuldeep Singh was arrested from the spot.
Following the arrest, members of the community lodged their protest against the use of religious books as packaging material at a meeting of all scrap dealers of Samba.
Prominent and religious leaders of the community were among those who attended the meeting.
During the meeting, it was decided that two police teams will be constituted to survey scrap dealers’ godowns to check on such use of religious books.
“Till evening, searches were carried out by these teams in 30 godowns. Out of these, three godowns have been sealed by police on the orders of SDM Bari-Brahmna from where such religious material found”, he said.
Scrap dealers, supported by some BJP leaders, alleged that police was harassing them instead of arresting those who sold the religious books.
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