Delhi Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested three persons who were found to be involved in the vandalism of a church in West Delhi’s Vikaspuri area. They were picked up on the basis of CCTV footage. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DC) West district, Pushpendra Kumar said all three men under the influence of liquor hedged a bet on who could first smash the glass windowpane of the Church of Our lady of Graces in Vikaspuri area.
The trio — identified as Narender Singh, alias Raja, 33, Ravinder Pal Singh Gill, 25 and Harpreet Singh Dhanjal, alias Kaka, 28 — was arrested from Nihal Vihar area Wednesday morning, police said. “Gill, who is unemployed, broke the glass and also a portion of the church. He came on a scooter while Dhanjal came on motorcycle to witness his act,” the DCP said. While, Singh works as an aluminium fabricator, Dhanjal is an AC repair mechanic, he added.
A police official involved in the investigations said that all accused were the residents of a nearby area. They were arrested on the basis of identification made through the CCTV cameras installed at the church’s entrance gate. The incident had taken place around 4.19 am at Church of Our lady of Graces on Wednesday morning and was caught on CCTV camera. It prompted police to register a case against identified men for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings at Vikaspuri police station and efforts were on to nab the two.
The incident comes a month after a mysterious, early morning fire wrecked St Sebastian’s Church in Dilshad Garden, prompting allegations of foul play by the Christian community and sparking protests outside Delhi Police Headquarters. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up to probe the case but there has been no headway as yet.