A statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first home minister, was found defaced in the village of Shertha in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district on Wednesday, PTI reported. A few villagers found the statue garlanded with empty cold drink bottles and grass.
“We have initiated investigation into the matter and sought CCTV footage from around the area to identify the persons involved in this case,” Inspector JG Vaghela said. “We are also in the process of registering an FIR [first information report].”
The police have stationed two Home Guard jawans and a police constable near the statue, which senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani had unveiled in October 1992.
This is the latest in a spate of attacks across the country on statues of Lenin, Periyar, BR Ambedkar, Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Syama Prasad Mookerjee. A Central Reserve Police Force jawan was arrested late Tuesday for allegedly vandalising a statue of social reformer EV Ramaswamy, or Periyar, in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukottai district.
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