A bust of Mahatma Gandhi has been vandalised in Italy allegedly by Khalistani extremists on Wednesday hours after its inauguration.
According to reports, the accused also made graffiti on the base of the statue and wrote a reference to Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Following the incident, the local authorities said that the area was cleaned up in "record time".
The incident comes just days ahead of the G7 summit in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to participate this week.
PM Modi will travel to Italy on Thursday to attend the annual summit of G7 advanced economies.Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said that PM Modi's participation in the G7 summit would provide an opportunity to follow up on outcomes of the G20 summit held under India's presidency last year.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra has said that he would take the matter with the Italian authorities.
"We have seen the reports of that and we have taken it up with the Italian authorities. We understand that a suitable rectification has already taken place," Foreign Secretary Kwatra said.
Reacting to the incident, India’s ambassador to Italy Vani Rao said, “The incident was in a town called Brindisi, which is in southern Italy. The Italian local authorities have taken action to clean up the pedestal of the bust. We have also taken up our concerns with them immediately. We have requested them to locate those who are responsible and take action against them under the local law.”
In a similar incident last year, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised at a university campus in Canada's British Columbia province by Khalistan extremists.