New Delhi: A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised by some unidentified people at a public park in Ramman Mandi in Punjab’s Bathinda district, police said on Saturday. According to a report by news agency PTI, the incident took place on the intervening night between Thursday and Friday.
According to the report, after vandalising the statue, the miscreants took away its face. Locals strongly condemned the incident after they came to know about the vandalism and Ashok Kumar Singla, chief of the District Urban Congress, demanded immediate arrest of those behind the crime.
Station House Officer (Sadar) Harjot Singh Mann said that police are investigating the matter and have registered a case under sections 379, 427 at Ramman Mandi Police Station.
Police further assured that the culprits would be nabbed soon.
They said Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) footage of the area is being examined to trace the ones behind the incident.
According to report, the incident in Bhatinda comes just days after a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised in Ontario province in Canada. The statue was vandalised at Vishnu Mandir in the area of Yonge Street and Garden Avenue.
Taking to their Twitter handle, the Indian Consulate General in Toronto had said, “We are distressed at the desecration of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Vishnu temple in Richmond Hill. This criminal, hateful act of vandalism has deeply hurt the sentiments of the Indian community in Canada. We are in contact with Canadian authorities to investigate this hate crime.”
The local police had described the vandalism as hate and a “bias-motivated incident.”