Prithvi Raj Chauhan statue damaged

AS IF the desecration of BR Ambedkar’s statue at Kakadeo was not enough, in yet another incident on Wednesday Prithvi Raj Chauhan’s statue was damaged at Gajner, Kanpur Dehat.  

The police arrested the miscreant Harish Chand alias Shiv Bodhan Dwivedi. The miscreant had tried to damage the statue with a hammer but because of the height of the statue, he could not completely destroy it. However, hammer strokes caused cracks in the statue.

The statue sitting atop an elephant was installed on a raised platform, thereby considerably increasing the height.

The incident led to wide-spread resentment in the entire area and local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders sat on a dharna, demanding immediate replacement of the statue.

According to information, the incident took place at around 9 am. The miscreant, armed with a hammer and shouting slogans in favour of a particular party and its leaders, climbed on the platform on which the statue was installed at the main crossing at Gajner. On receiving the information from local residents, cops from the Gajner police station rushed to the spot and   arrested the miscreant.

Kanpur Dehat SDM rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. In protest against the incident, four-time BJP MP from Bithoor Shyam Bihari Mishra and ex-MLA KK Singh along with local residents sat on a dharna demanding replacement of the statue.

Talking to HT, Mishra stated when the statue of BR Ambedkar could be replaced by the district administration within hours of the incident, why the same can’t be done with the statue of Prithvi Raj Chauhan.