Ludhiana – Panic gripped the city after torn pages of Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita and related texts were found scattered in Deep Nagar, Chander Nagar, Green Field and surrounding areas on Monday.
The police have rounded up four boys from the Civil City area who were allegedly involved in the incident.
The boys were rounded up after they were caught tearing the pages on close circuit television camera (CCTV).
During questioning, they stated that last evening, the boys, all students of third standard and aged around 9 to 10 years, had visited Dandi Swami temple in Civil Lines and offered prayers.
When they came outside the temple, they saw old holy books lying in a drum outside the temple.
They picked up the books and went to the park in Green Field area, said the Commissioner of Police Paramraj Singh Umranangal.
There, they tore the books and flung the pages into the air, emulating the act of people throwing currency notes in the air during marriages.
“As they are juvenile, the police cannot register a case against them. They were produced before the juvenile magistrate. Further action will be taken by the court,” said the Commissioner.
The incident came to light when residents of Chander Nagar, who were carrying out a ‘prabhat pheri’ spotted the torn pages.
Initially, the residents took it to be the pages of Guru Granth Sahib. The granthi, Ajit Singh, who was leading the ‘prabhat pheri’ told the residents that the pages were of Hindu holy books.
The residents informed the police and started collecting the pages that were spread in a radius of nearly 2 km.
Soon, policemen led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Joginder Singh arrived on the scene and launched a manhunt to nab the miscreants.
A team of police officers visited the nearby houses and shops that had installed CCTV cameras at their establishments.
A resident of the Green Field area told the police that last evening, he had spotted four boys tearing pages of a book and throwing these into the air.
During the scanning of the CCTV footage, the boys were spotted tearing the pages. Soon, they were picked up following which all the four confessed to the act.
Later, Commissioner of Police Paramraj Singh Umranangal, Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police Narinder Bhargav, BJP district president Parveen Bansal, SAD leader Madan Lal Bagga and Shivtar Singh Bajwa held a meeting with representatives of various Hindu organisations and briefed them about the incident.