JAMMU: J&K police arrested three publishers on Sunday in a case linked to two books allegedly glorifying separatists and anti-national elements that were supplied to government school libraries before being withdrawn.Inderpaul of Jammu-based Oberoi Book Service and Amardeep Singh and Girish Arora of Noida-based Dominant Publishers were taken into custody, as police widened the probe that could trigger more arrests.Case centres on “Personalities and Legends of J&K” authored by Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena, and “Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir” written by Sushant Giri.On July 4, LG Manoj Sinha suspended eight school education department officials, dismissed a contractual staffer and ordered an inquiry after BJP, Congress and other political parties objected that the two books, distributed under Centre’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, contained “inappropriate content”.According to officials, sub-committees were set up to select books after library grants were received under Samagra Shiksha. They shortlisted 463 titles, but scrutiny later flagged the two books. By then, 100-plus copies of each book had reached schools.On July 6, police searched Samagra Shiksha’s office in Jammu and a publisher’s office in Noida. Officials said searches were aimed at finding how the books reached libraries despite red flags during content scrutiny.
