Unidentified miscreants vandalised a 6-ft tall, 650-pound (294 kg) bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi in United States. The vandalised statue of Mahatma Gandhi was found by a park employee in the early hours of morning of January 27. The statue is being removed and will be stored in a safe place until it can be evaluated, said Davis City councilman Lucas Frerichs.Investigators are still unsure of when exactly the statue was torn down or what the motive may have been, The Sacramento Bee reported.“Seeing as it’s a cultural icon to a portion of the people in Davis, we are taking it very seriously,” Deputy Chief Paul Doroshov of the Davis Police Department was quoted as saying by the daily.The statue of Gandhi, which was donated by the Indian government to the city of Davis, was installed by the city council four years ago amidst protests from anti-Gandhi and anti-India organisations. India on Saturday condemned the incident which has happened for the second time in the country.
“The government of India strongly condemns this malicious and despicable act against a universally respected icon of peace and justice,” the ministry said in a statement. The Indian embassy in Washington took up the issue with the US state department and called for a “thorough investigation into the incident and appropriate action against those responsible for this despicable act”. Local Indian community organisations too condemned the vandalism. “Seeing as it’s a cultural icon to a portion of the people in Davis, we are taking it very seriously,” Paul Doroshov, deputy chief of the Davis police department, was quoted as saying by the local media. There were protests by anti-Gandhi and anti-India organisations when the statue was installed by the council of Davis city four years ago. On December 12, a group of pro-Khalistan activists desecrated Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Plaza in front of the Indian embassy in Washington, during a demonstration in support of farmers protesting against the three farm laws in India. A poster and a Khalistan flag were placed on the statue.