Kerala cops arrest ‘mentally unstable’ man for damaging Mahatma Gandhi statue, rule out politics

The Kerala Police on Thursday arrested one man for damaging a statue of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, in Kannur district of Kerala. According to police, the man arrested in Taliparamba in Kannur district is “mentally unstable”. The police also ruled out any political connection in the incident.

The statue of Mahatma Gandhi was damaged at taluk office in Taliparamba in Kannur district of Kerala. The incident occurred at around 7 am on Thursday. Reports said that the unidentified miscreant broke the spectacles, damaged the garland and hurled stones on the statue. The police had launched an investigation into the case soon after it was reported.

Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported that unidentified people poured paint on the bust of Dr BR Ambedkar at Tiruvottiyur near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

This came a day after PM Modi strongly condemned such incidents and spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the issue.

"Incidents of toppling of statues have been reported from certain parts of the country. MHA has taken serious notes of such incidents of vandalism. PM also spoke to Home Minister in this regard and has expressed his strong disapproval of such incidents," the Ministry of Home Affairs had said in a statement on Wednesday.

The MHA also asked the states to take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents. "Persons indulging in such acts must be sternly dealt with and booked under relevant provisions of law," the MHA said.

There have been multiple incidents of statues being vandalised in various parts of the country. It started with the demolition of a statue of Vladimir Lenin with the help of a bulldozer in Tripura after Left Front’s debacle in the state Assembly elections. Another statue of Lenin was vandalised despite directives from the Centre.

Following this, a statue of Dravidian ideologue ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy was damaged in Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. Two persons – one from BJP and the other from CPI – were arrested in connection with the incident. Thereafter, statue of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee was also damaged at Jadavpur University in West Bengal.