Patna, Feb. 20: Police in Delhi doubt that a stolen manuscript of the holy Guru Granth Sahib, found by them last week following the arrest of three persons, was procured from the Bihar capital.

Last week, officers of the Karol Bagh police station in the national capital arrested the three persons — one from Delhi, the second from Uttar Pradesh and the third from Bihar’s East Champaran district — from a hotel in Gurgaon.

“Praveen Babbar, Santosh Kumar Singh and Kalyaneshwar Gautam were allegedly planning to sell the manuscript to any prospective buyer for about Rs 20 crore. The manuscript could be over 200 years old,” a source said. During interrogation, the three told police they got the manuscript from the Patna Sahib area, The Takht Shri Harmandir Sahib Gurudwara, considered the holiest place of the Sikhs next to the Golden Temple, is situated in Patna City.

Though there were rumours that a team of Delhi police might come to Patna in connection with the case, senior police officers refuted the report. “At present, there is no need for a team of Delhi police to rush to Patna. The manuscript was found on Praveen Babbar, a resident of Delhi. Of the three, Gautam is from Bihar and Singh from UP,” Rajan Bhagat, the spoke-sperson of Delhi police, told The Telegraph over phone.

The sources added that with the manuscript found in possession of Babbar, the police wanted to investigate the case before sending a team to Patna. “It can be possible that the man might have procured it from any place in the country, may be in New Delhi,” a police source said.

Officials of the Prabhandak Committee of the Takht Shri Harmandir Sahib told The Telegraph that at present, the shrine has 40 manuscripts of the holy book and there had not been any theft in the place of worship since 1985. “I am an active member and secretary of the committee since 1994 and we haven’t come across any theft in the gurudwara. We have learnt about the news of the arrest. But we cannot comment on it now,” Raja Singh, the secretary of the committee, said.

Gyani Iqbal Singh, the religious head of the committee, said there were several such manuscripts across the country. “We cannot rule out the possiblity of some thefts at the gurudwaras in the state during the 1984 riots following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi” he added.