Rajasthan publishing house owner booked for Islamist terrorism reference in textbook

New Delhi: The Rajasthan State Textbook Board and the owner of a publishing house have been booked for hurting religious sentiments over a reference to Islamist terrorism in a political science textbook, police said on Thursday.

The FIR against the board and Mohseen Rashid Khan, the owner of Sanjeev Passbook Publication, was registered on Wednesday, they said.

A chapter in the political science textbook in Hindi, ‘Terrorism, Criminalisation of Politics and Corruption’, states “Islamist terrorism is a form of Islam”. The textbook was published in 2018 under the former BJP government and is no longer in circulation.

Convenor of the political science textbook Bhanwar Singh Rathore, who was an associate professor with a government college in Jodhpur and wrote this portion, died in September 2020.

The case against the Rajasthan State Textbook Board and the owner of Sanjeev Passbook Publication has been registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 295A (Hurting religious sentiments) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the police said.

“We registered the FIR on the basis of a complaint lodged by Muslim community leaders late on Wednesday. They objected to the text comparing Islam with terrorism,” Station House Officer (SHO), Lalkothi, Surendra Singh said.

The office of Sanjeev Passbook Publication was vandalised on Wednesday by a group of people miffed over the content of the textbook. Three people were arrested in connection with the incident, the police said.

Manager of Sanjeev Passbook Publication Vijay Shukla said after the matter came to light, the books were recalled from the market and destroyed.

He added that the publishing house has apologised in writing but it continues to receive threat calls.