Police intensify probe into vandalism at Hampi

Bengaluru: The Bellary police have intensified their investigation into the vandalism at the UNESCO world heritage site in Hampi of Karnataka, an official said.

A carved stone pillar at Hampi was allegedly damaged by miscreants and the video of it has gone viral on social media. 

The clip, which surfaced Saturday, purportedly showed three men pushing the artistically carved stone pillar to the ground, following which it breaks and the trio rejoice.

Other damaged pillars are also shown lying around, but it was not immediately clear whether the men in the video had damaged it.

A person from Betul in Madhya Pradesh shared the videos on Instagram under an identity 'DigitalAyush'. However, the account was deleted ever since the video went viral.

Arun Rangarajan, the SP of Bellary under which Hampi falls, said, "Three teams have been formed to nab the culprits. We have sufficient leads in this case and they will be arrested soon."

"They were tourists who did it just for excitement. There were no other motives," he said.

Karnataka Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar had on Saturday said stringent action would be taken against those responsible.

Recently, Hampi, the erstwhile capital of the Vijayanagar empire, known for its rich architecture, was listed second on the New York Times list of 52 must-go sites in the world.