Ambedkars statue vandalised in Uttar Pradesh

In a spate of vandalism of statues of iconic leaders and ideologues in different parts of the country which started on Wednesday, B R Ambedkar's statue was found decapitated by miscreants on Thursday morning.

Earlier, the bust of Mahatma Gandhi's statue was found decapitated in Nathdwara, Rajasthan on Thursday.

Three people were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the vandalisation of Gandhi's statue on the basis of CCTV footage.

Thosearrested wereidentified as Kuldeep, Arvind and Ankit. The accused confessed that they vandalised the statue on late Monday night, reports said. However, the intention behind their act is not yet clear and the police is investigating the matter.

Recently, the Rajasthan police had arrested a person for vandalising the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Jaisalmer.

Last month, a statue of the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was defaced with ink in West Bengal.

In a similar incident, Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee's idol was vandalised in Kokrajhar's Assam.

The incidents of vandalism began after a statue of communist icon Vladimir Lenin was razed after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Left front government out of power in the assembly elections in Tripura.

Soon after, the statue of social reformer and rationalist leader E V Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, was vandalised in Vellore.