Birbhum Police have arrested two persons in connection with the defacement of a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Tuesday.

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The half bust cement statue of Bose had been installed within the premises of Panchra Gram Panchayat office, under Khairasole Police Station at a cost of Rs 1.36 lakh and was to be unveiled on the morning of Independence Day. Eyewitnesses said that the statue was intact till Monday evening.

On Tuesday morning, as staff members of the Panchayat Office arrived, they discovered that the statue had been smeared with tar and the nose had been broken. The decoration around it in the tricolour was also damaged. 

Deenbandhu Das, the Group D staff member who discovered the damage informed the panchayat pradhan. Officials of Khairasole PS were informed and an investigation was initiated.

Area locals demanded that police arrest the offenders soon. Panchayat Pradhan​ Sonali Bakshi said that they had decided to celebrate Independence Day with a lot of fanfare and the statue was installed as a part of it. “We cannot imagine that people would do such a fallen deed. Have asked police to find out the anti-national people soon,” she said.

Two persons – Maida Bauri and Vinod Das – have been arrested. “We have arrested two and interrogation is on. The statue had been installed within the panchayat office premises and since the place is in a remote area, there is no CCTV as well, which makes the work even more difficult. But we will hopefully crack the case soon,” said N Sudheer Kumar, SP, Birbhum.