3 held for vandalising Gandhi's statue in Rajasthan

Rajasthan(Jaipur) [India] Apr 4 (ANI): The spate of vandalism of statues of iconic leaders and ideologues in different parts of the country, which began with the razing down of Vladimir Lenin's statue in Tripura, has reached Rajsamand's Nathdwara, where the bust of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was found decapitated.

Three people were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the same on the basis of the CCTV footage.

The arrestees, identified as Kuldeep, Arvind and Ankit, confessed that they vandalised the statue on late Monday night. However, the intention behind their act is not yet clear and the police is investigating the matter.

Recently, the Rajasthan Police arrested a person for vandalising the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Jaisalmer as well. The arrestee was allegedly annoyed by reports of Ambedkar statues being damaged in other states.

Last month, a statue of the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was defaced with ink in West Bengal.

In a similar incident, Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee's idol was vandalised in Kokrajhar's Assam. Also, the statue of a profound Bengali poet from the 19th century, Michael Madhusudan Dutt was defaced in Purba Bardhaman district of West Bengal.

The incidents of vandalism began after a statue of communist icon Vladimir Lenin was razed after the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) swept the Left front government out of power in the assembly elections in Tripura.

Soon after, the statue of social reformer and rationalist leader E V Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, was vandalised in Vellore. (ANI)