Balikuda: Miscreants vandalized a statue of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das on the premises of a school at Naharana here in Jagatsinghpur district late Saturday night.
The incident flared up tension in the area as residents from Naharana panchayat burnt tyres and staged a road blockade demanding action against those involved in the vandalism.
Police rushed to the spot and started an investigation. They traced the severed head of the statue from the Devi river ghat and recovered it.
Police tried to placate the agitating villagers but the altter refused to withdraw the stir demanding arrest of the accused persons.
They finally relented after sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Manoj Mohanta reached the spot and assured the agitators of arresting the accused within eight days. Sources said the statue of Gopabandhu was installed on the premises of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Vidyapitha in 2009 following the efforts of the 1988 batch alumni of the school.
The students used to pay tributes to the statue on the birth and death anniversaries of Gopabandhu. However, to everyone’s surprise miscreants broke the head of the statue late Saturday night and dumped it on the Devi river ghat Villagers after coming to know about the incident conducted a meeting and lodged a complaint in the police station through headmaster Dyutikrushna Swain. PNN