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| Controversial books row: 3 publishers held, ‘invisible’ co-author still at large | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, July 12: The Counter-Intelligence wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police has arrested three publishers in connection with the controversial textbook case involving the alleged glorification of terrorists and separatist leaders in books supplied to government school libraries, even as investigators continue their hunt for a co-author whose very existence has now come under question.
Inderpaul of Oberoi Book Service, along with Amardeep Singh and Girish Arora of Noida-based Dominant Publishers, were taken into custody following coordinated raids conducted by Counter-Intelligence sleuths in Jammu and Delhi. Both firms had earlier been blacklisted by the government, and their premises were raided on July 6 as part of the widening probe.
The case dates back to July 4, when the Counter-Intelligence unit registered an FIR invoking multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including provisions relating to criminal conspiracy, endangering the sovereignty and integrity of India, and promoting enmity, alongside Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The action followed the discovery of two books in government school libraries that authorities say glorified separatist figures.
The books at the centre of the row are Personalities and Legends of J&K, credited to Hilal Ahmed and Santosh Meena and published by Oberoi Book Service, and Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir, authored by Sushant Giri and published by Delhi-based Anurag Prakashan. Officials said 123 copies of the former were circulated to schools in Jammu, Ramban and Udhampur districts, while 128 copies of the latter reached schools in Jammu and Baramulla.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had already suspended eight officials of the School Education Department, dismissed a contractual employee, and ordered a formal inquiry on July 4 after the books were found to contain what officials described as “highly inappropriate content.”
Even as the publisher arrests bring the investigation a step forward, one thread remains conspicuously unresolved. Co-author Santosh Meena has been traced to Rajasthan, but Hilal Ahmed has vanished without a trace, prompting investigators to probe a startling possibility: that the name itself may not belong to a real person at all.
“It is still not known whether Hilal Ahmed actually exists or whether the name is fictitious,” a source privy to the investigation said, adding a fresh layer of intrigue to a case that has already gripped the Union Territory.
Investigators believe the controversy runs deeper still, with several passages in the textbook reportedly lifted verbatim from Pakistani propaganda literature — a detail that has sharpened suspicions about the book’s origins and intent. With more arrests expected in the coming days, the Counter-Intelligence wing is racing to determine not just who wrote the offending text, but whether its author ever existed in the first place. |
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