Vandalisation of Mayawati statue: 3 more held

Lucknow, Jul 27: Three more persons, including the main accused, were arrested today in connection with the vandalisation of the statue of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati here.

National president of a little-known outfit Uttar Pradesh Nava Nirman Sena Amit Jaani and his aide Rajendra Singh Chaudhary, alias Ferrari, were apprehended from Delhi-UP border by UP Special Task Force while the group's state president Qasim Chaudhary was arrested from Gomti Nagar area, IG (Lucknow) Asutosh Pandey told PTI.

Qasim was involved in the incident and his picture with helmet was taken, Pandey said.

With this, the total number of arrests in connection with the incident went up to six. Three persons, including organisers Alok Srivastava, his son Arpit Srivastava and an executive of a PR agency Vishal Mishra were arrested by police yesterday.

Inspector General of Police BP Singh said all the three persons arrested yesterday were booked on the charge of conspiracy and produced in the court from where they were remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

A marble statue of Mayawati was vandalised at Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Stahl at Gomti Nagar area yesterday, triggering tension and protests by BSP activists across the state. BSP alleged it was the handiwork of ruling Samajwadi Party workers.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav condemned the incident and claimed it was a planned conspiracy to vitiate the atmosphere in the state. The local administration, on a directive of Akhilesh, got the damaged statue replaced with a fresh one.

PTI