Tamil Nadu: Periyar statue vandalised by unidentified persons in Pudukkottai, case registered and investigation on. https://t.co/tbeusZiOxn — ANI (@ANI) 1521516549000

NEW DELHI: Another incident of statue vandalism was reported from Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai district today when unidentified person damaged a figure of the 19th -century social activist Periyar EV Ramasamy , reported ANI.Following the incident, a case has been registered against an unidentified person and an investigation is underway.The statue was unveiled by Dravidar Kazhagam leader K Veeramani in 2013 and is maintained by the district unit of the party.Unidentified persons cut off the head of the statue using a chisel and placed it near the roundtana, police said.On receiving information, police and revenue department officials rushed to the spot and a large contingent of police was deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident.The district authorities swung into action on hearing about the incident, carried out repair works and restored the statue to its original state by 8 am, they said.Earlier this month, a statue of communist hero Lenin was razed in Tripura on March 5 sparking off a wave of similar actions across the country.A day later, in Vellore, following a controversial post by senior BJP leader from Tamil Nadu, H Raja, where he advocated the destruction of Periyar statues in the state, a BJP town secretary and some of his relatives stoned a statue of the anti-case icon on March 6.Two people were arrested for allegedly vandalising the statue of the rationalist leader.The vandalising of Periyar's statue had occurred hours after Raja, a senior BJP leader tweeted the following, in Tamil: “Who is Lenin and what is the connection between Lenin and India? What connection has India with communists? Lenin's statue has been removed in Tripura. Today it is Lenin's statue in Tripura, tomorrow it will be the statue of caste fanatic EVR Ramasamy (Periyar).”The tweet was referring to a Lenin statue in Tripura that was on March 5 razed by bulldozer-armed hooligans wearing saffron shirts. They were celebrating the victory of the BJP in Assembly elections in the state. The saffron party routed the CPM, which had ruled Tripura for 25 years.