Ludhiana man commits sacrilege by tearing off pages of scripture; arrested

Ludhiana, November 4

A man has been arrested here for allegedly committing sacrilege by tearing pages of Guru Granth Sahib and throwing them on a road and triggering tension in the area by uploading the video footage of strewn pages on YouTube.

The police identified the arrested youth as Sewa Singh, a resident of Swatantra Nagar in Ludhiana, who works for a Batala-based YouTube channel.

Singh, apparently an aspiring journalist, resorted to committing the sacrilegious act and then report about it in his quest to become famous overnight, said Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Rakesh Aggarwal.

With the blasphemous video already triggering tension in the area, the man himself approached Swatantra Nagar gurdwara president Baldev Singh, claiming that he had seen the people who threw the pages of the holy book after tearing them apart, said Aggarwal.

As the man was summoned by police, he reiterated his claim and said he had seen two motorcyclists committing the act on Tajpur Road of the city and driving away via a particular route, said the police commissioner.

But on checking the video footage of the area, no sign of any motorcycle-borne miscreants committing the act was found, he said.

On closer scrutiny, the man confessed to having committed the crime himself in a bid become famous overnight, said Aggarwal.

He said the accused has been arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for hurting religious sentiments of a particular community. PTI