AAP MLA held for Quran ‘desecration’

party office where our team was waiting. He came on his own. I had instructed my team to remain in Delhi till he was nabbed. The team will reach Sangrur on Monday and we will seek his police remand for further investigation,” confirmed Sangrur SSP Pritpal Singh Thind.

Earlier in the day, the police team from Sangrur, headed by SP Jaskaran Singh Teja, went to the MLA’S house but could not find him. They conducted searches at a few other places also.

“We have SMSES, call detail records and evidence of his presence in the district which prove his involvement. We conducted raids at different locations and so far five, including Yadav, have been arrested. He will be produced in a Punjab court tomorrow,” said Teja.

On the night of June 24, torn pages of the Quran were reportedly found in Malerkotla. Protesting over this desecration, a mob attacked local MLA Farzana Alam’s house, torched some vehicles and damaged about a dozen buses.

Vijay Kumar, a Delhi-based businessman, was arrested on June 28 with two others, Gaurav and Nand Kishore. According to the police, in his statement to the court on Saturday, Kumar claimed that he had torn the pages of the Quran at the behest of the AAP MLA, who offered him Rs 1 crore.

Nand Kishore is the VHP zonal secretary in Pathankot.

“Kumar told the court that the motive was tocreatecommunaltensionandinstigatepeople against the state government,” said Thind.

After naming Yadav in the FIR on July 3, the Punjab Police called him twice for questioning on July 6 and July 10. After the second interrogation, SSP Thind said the MLA had given contradictory statements, and he could be arrested.

Yadav, however, had claimed that he was being targeted by the SAD-BJP government. The AAP MLA had claimed that he had met Vijay Kumar only once or twice.

— WITH ENS INPUTS, DELHI