J&K court sends publishers arrested for books ‘glorifying’ separatists to 10 days’ police custody

3 min readJammuJul 13, 2026 07:18 PM IST

Books distributed to government school libraries in Jammu and Kashmir are under investigation for allegedly containing content glorifying separatists and militants. (File photo enhanced using AI)

A Jammu court has allowed the counter-intelligence unit of the Jammu and Kashmir Police to conduct 10 days’ custodial questioning of three publishers arrested in connection with the publication and distribution of two books allegedly containing contents glorifying separatists and militants.

The publishers, identified as Inderpaul Singh from Oberoi Book Service, Jammu, and Amardeep Singh and Girish Arora from Noida-based Dominant Publishers, were arrested on Sunday as part of the investigations into the publication and supply of two books, ‘Personalities and Legends of J&K’ and ‘Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir’, to government school libraries in J&K.

The first book is authored by Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena, and the second one is authored by Sushant Giri.

While searches are in progress to track down the authors, officials said the arrested publishers were virtually produced before the court, which granted 10 days’ police remand to facilitate further investigation into the case.

After the books were withdrawn from school libraries, the J&K Police had registered a case under BNS sections 49 (abetment of an offence), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 152 (endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India), 196 (promoting enmity, disharmony) and 353 (publishing, or circulating false statements, rumours, or reports), besides section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Officials said the counter-intelligence personnel of the J&K Police had conducted searches on the premises of both the publication houses on July 6.

As many as 251 copies of the books had been distributed in Jammu, Ramban, Udhampur and Baramulla districts of J&K, and all the copies have been “withdrawn”.

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The government had also ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.

The action followed objections raised by the BJP, Congress, and other political groups, who claimed that the books glorified separatism.

One of the books purportedly calls Maqbool Bhat, co-founder of the separatist Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, who was hanged in Tihar Jail on two murder charges, a martyr.

It also purportedly describes separatist political leader and Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party founder-president Shabir Shah as “one of the highest profile campaigners for Kashmiri independence, who campaigned for self-determination in Kashmir since the late 1960s and had spent much of his life in Indian jails”.