MP: Miscreants uproot Dr Ambedkar's statue, make unsuccessful bid to take it away; police on guard

Dhar, May 8 (PTI) Unidentified persons allegedly uprooted the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at a village in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh and tried to take it away with them, but escaped without it on seeing a group of people, police said.

The incident took place at Jaitpura village situated on the Indore-Ahmedabad four-lane highway on Wednesday evening. Some time later, the same statue was found desecrated, prompting the police to deploy its personnel around the site, they said.

The village is located in Dhar bordering Indore district, where Dr Ambedkar was born.

"Some unidentified persons removed the statue of Dr Ambedkar, tried to put it in a bus and escaped," City Superintendent of Police Ravindra Vaskel told reporters.

"But some people got to know about it and rushed to the spot. On seeing them, the anti-social elements fled," he added.

The authorities reinstalled the statue, the police official said, adding that the culprits would be arrested soon.

"After the reinstallation of the statue, some people went to the police and lodged a complaint about the incident. But on returning to the site, they found that the same statue had been vandalised," he added.

The temper of the village people flared and to calm the situation, Sub Divisional Magistrate Roshni Patidar, Tehsildar Dinesh Uikey and senior police officials reached the spot.

"The police are scanning the CCTV footage to nab the unidentified accused after Naogaon police station booked them on the complaint of one Jagdish," Vaskel said.

Two police teams are probing the incident, he said.

"We have received some technical evidence and footage which we are verifying. We expect to find the culprits soon," he added.

Local Dalit leader Vijay Chopra said the village authorities had installed Dr Ambedkar's statue a year ago. PTI COR LAL NP