6 people have been taken into custody.
In what is being touted as retaliation for demolition of Lenin’s statue in Tripura, a statue of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee has been broken and smeared with black paint in south Kolkata.
At about 7 am this morning, six students – five boys and a girl – claiming to belong to the Radical group of Jadavpur University entered the park in front of Keoratola Crematorium in south Kolkata. The gates had been kept open for gardeners who were busy cleaning the place. The youth got into the park, broke the right eye, cheek and ear of the statue with hammers and then smeared black in on the half bust statue. Area locals, seeing the act raised an alarm and shut the gates of the park before informing Tollygunge Police Station. Officials of the PS arrived a little later and held the six.
In a press statement issued by the BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu, the party condemned the act. ‘We demand strong action against the culprits and also want to give away the message that you just can’t take away the contribution of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee in building West Bengal by this shameful act’, the statement read.
Reacting to the incident, senior TMC leader and state Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, branded this as work of perverted mind. He said that the state police is active to stop such brazen act of vandalism. Sovandeb also said that the state government will repair his bust. He urged people to be cautious and alert police if they come across such incidents.
BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh said,
Currently Bengal BJP is planning massive protest to raise their voice against this hooligan act. Recollecting the incident, a local citizen earlier said, “We were having tea in the vicinity when we saw these youngsters walk into the park, place a poster in front of the statue and started breaking it. We alerted others and together stopped them. They were locked inside the park and police were informed".
Police later shut the gate to keep outsiders away and washed the black stain off the statue. Police said that they were questioning the students who, sources said have admitted to doing it as a revenge for Lenin's statues being vandalised in Tripura, where BJP won the state election recently. The place where the incident happened is under Ward 88 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the councillor in Mala Roy of TMC.
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