Fourteen persons have been arrested on the charge of publicly desecrating a portrait of Lord Ram while protesting the vandalisation of a statue of social reformer 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy.

Mayiladuthurai (Tamil Nadu): Fourteen persons have been arrested on the charge of publicly desecrating a portrait of Lord Ram while protesting the vandalisation of a statue of social reformer "Periyar" EV Ramasamy, police said on Wednesday.

The group, led by one Jayaraman who had spearheaded the recent protest against methane gas exploration project in the region, desecrated the portrait on Tuesday.

All the 14 were arrested on Tuesday night and produced on Wednesday before Magistrate A Chellapandian who remanded them to judicial custody, police said.

They were protesting against the damage caused to the Periyar statue in Pudukottai on Tuesday.

In the incident, the latest in a series of similar incidents of vandalism, the head of the Periyar statue was found cut and placed near a traffic roundabout, drawing condemnation from DMK, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other political parties.

A CRPF jawan has been arrested for allegedly vandalising the Periyar statue.