india

Updated: Sep 04, 2019 23:24 IST

Senior Communist Party of India (M) leader Sheikh Abdul Ghani was booked by the police in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior on Wednesday for allegedly selling a book on the abrogation of Article 370 a day earlier, officials said.

The 74-year-old Ghani, who is a retired employee of BSNL, was booked for promoting enmity between different groups under non-bailable section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was detained on Tuesday evening but released later at night.

“Police got information on Tuesday evening that a person was selling a controversial book at Phoolbagh square and a heavy crowd had gathered in the area. A team from the Padaav police station reached there,” Gwalior’s superintendent of police, Navneet Bhasin, said.

“Police found that the book with contents that could promote enmity among people of different castes and religions was being sold by Sheikh Abdul Ghani,” Bhasin said.

The chief of CPI(M)’s Madhya Pradesh unit Jaswinder Singh has written the book ‘Dhara 370: Setu Ya Surang’ and the protest during which it was being sold was organised by Muslim Adhikar Manch, according to police. They said the Manch was protesting to press its demand for cleaning Sagartal, a local water body.

“The book is being sold across the state and it has nothing objectionable in it. The police took action without even reading the contents of the book with a malafide intention,” Jaswinder Singh said.

The media cell in-charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Madhya Pradesh unit Lokendra Parashar had on Tuesday written on social media that an objectionable book was being sold during a protest at Phoolbagh.

“As per the information that we received, the book has objectionable contents against the merger of J-K (Jammu and Kashmir) with India and also against the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and others. Such literature can cause unrest in society,” Parashar said.

Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said they were not aware of the development. “We will look into it,” Dhanopia said.