J&K Police Arrest Three Publishers Over School Library Books

JAMMU: Three publishers were arrested on Sunday in connection with two books supplied to government school libraries in Jammu and Kashmir, which were later withdrawn after allegations of glorifying separatists and anti-national elements.

The arrests include Inderpaul of Jammu-based Oberoi Book Service, and Amardeep Singh and Girish Arora of Noida-based Dominant Publishers. Police have widened the investigation and more arrests are possible.

The case revolves around the books “Personalities and Legends of J&K” by Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena, and “Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir” by Sushant Giri. These books were distributed to schools under the Centre’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

On July 4, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha suspended eight officials from the school education department, dismissed a contractual staffer, and ordered an inquiry after objections were raised by political parties, including the BJP and Congress, over what they termed as “inappropriate content” in the books.

According to officials, sub-committees had been formed to select books after library grants were received under Samagra Shiksha. They shortlisted 463 titles, but scrutiny later flagged the two books. By then, more than 100 copies of each book had already reached schools.

On July 6, police searched the Samagra Shiksha office in Jammu and a publisher’s office in Noida. Officials said the searches aimed to understand how the books reached libraries despite the scrutiny process raising red flags.

The arrested publishers are being questioned to determine their role in the supply chain and whether there was any deliberate attempt to circumvent the content review process.