Face of Jawaharlal Nehru's statue found blackened in West Bengal

BURDWAN, WEST BENGAL: India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's statue with its face blackened, was found in Katwa town of West Bengal today, the police said.

The Congress has blamed the BJP for the incident, but the saffron party denied any involvement in it.

The statue at Telephone Maidan at Katwa town in East Burdwan district with its face blackened was found this morning by the locals, who then informed the police about it.

Following this, Congress workers held a demonstration in front of the police station demanding immediate arrest of those responsible for the act.

A complaint was lodged by them, the police said, adding investigation into the incident was underway.

Chairman of the Trinamool Congress-run Katwa municipality Rabindranath Chattopadhyay condemned the blackening of Nehru's statue and said it was cleaned by the civic body later in the day.

Katwa Town Congress secretary Subhashish Samanta has alleged that BJP workers were behind the incident, while the saffron party's rural district secretary Sandip Nandy has said the party had no role in it.

A bust of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee was vandalised on March 7 in Kolkata by seven persons, including a woman.

Statues of communist leader Vladimir Lenin, social reformer Ramasamy Periyar and that of Bhimrao Ambedkar were vandalised in Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh respectively in recent days.