india

Updated: Mar 07, 2018 16:41 IST

A statue of Dalit leader BR Ambedkar was vandalised in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district on Tuesday night, police said on Wednesday, after idols of Communist icon Vladimir Lenin in Tripura were pulled down and a bust of social reformer Periyar damaged in Tamil Nadu.

Circle officer of Mawana UN Mishra said a villager noticed that Ambedkar’s statue was vandalised and informed the police. Mishra said the police rushed to the spot and pacified the irate residents.

READ MORE: Lenin, Periyar, SP Mookerjee, Ambedkar: Statue attacks the new political flashpoint

“We have asked the villagers to lodge an FIR in this connection. Stern action will be initiated against the culprits,” Mishra added.

Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Ankur Srivastava, who also rushed to the spot with Mishra, said the damaged 17-inch statue has been replaced and action would be taken against the vandals.

“The statue was damaged in the night ... An additional police force has been deployed in the area to avoid any confrontation,” Srivastava said.

“Fencing will be done around the statue to stop recurrence of such incidents,” he added.

Villagers claimed that this was the second time that Ambedkar’s statue was vandalised. They said his statue was desecrated on August 4 last year and replaced with a new one.

Ambedkar’s statue was vandalised hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned earlier such incidents in from some parts of the country and warned of stern action against those found guilty.

Modi spoke to Union home minister Rajnath Singh and expressed his strong disapproval of the incidents, a government spokesperson said as members of an ultra-Left student outfit vandalised and defaced a statue of BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee in Kolkata.

“MHA (ministry of home affairs) has asked the states that they must take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents...,” the spokesperson said.