3 held in connection with vandalisation of church

Police arrested three persons who had allegedly vandalised a church in order to fulfil a bet they had agreed upon after having a few drinks in the wee hours of Wednesday in west Delhi's Vikaspuri area.

The accused have been identified as Narender Singh alias Raja (33), Ravinder Pal Singh Gill (25) and Harpreet Singh Dhanjal alias Kaka (28). They were arrested from Nihal Vihar area Wednesday morning, police said.

"They'd had drinks that night and it was Harpreet who had challenged Ravinder to do the act while Narender Singh was also present on the spot," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Pushpendra Kumar.

Senior police officials also said that the trio neither had any political affiliations nor belonged to any groups.

"They had committed the act just to fulfil the bet. Ravinder, who is seen punching the glass pane and pulling down a statue inside it, had even bowed his head and folded hands before committing the act," Kumar said.

In the incident which took place yesterday at around 4.19 am, they had vandalised 'Our Lady of Graces Church' with their act having been caught on CCTV camera installed on the premises.

"CCTV footage was analysed and teams deployed in Sant Garh, Tilak Vihar, Shah Pura, Chander Vihar and Nihal Vihar where about 100 people were interrogated with the help of Eye and Ear scheme. On the basis of secret inputs and match of identity with the CCTV footage, the trio were identified and nabbed," said Kumar.

A scooter, motorcycle used during the incident and clothes worn by the accused person, have also been recovered, he added.

The attack, the fourth such one in recent weeks, came more than a month after a mysterious fire that damaged St Sebastian's Church in DilshadGarden.

That was followed by an incident on January 3 when a Christmas crib set up at 'Church of Resurrection' in outer Delhi's Rohini area was found torched.

Also, last month, unidentified people threw stones at 'Our Lady of Fatima Forane Church' at Jasola in south Delhi and broke windowpanes during evening Mass.

The attacks have prompted allegations of foul play by Christian groups with church authorities describing these as "targeted arson".