BHOPAL: Six days after the statue of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse was installed at a makeshift temple in the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) office building at Gwalior, the local authorities removed the statue from the building on Tuesday.
The golden coloured 32-inch metallic statue fashioned by a local artist was removed by a joint team of Gwalior district administration and Kotwali police, just an hour after the district collector and magistrate Rahul Jain ordered the removal of the statue owing to violation of the MP Public Places Act 2001.
The Gwalior district superintendent of police Dr Ashish confirmed to The New Indian Express that the statue has been removed and kept in safe custody of the police, till the district collector’s court issues further directions in the matter.
The Gwalior SP also said that an ABHM worker, who resisted the removal of the statue has been detained.
The removal of Godse’s statue happened just an hour after the Gwalior district collector Rahul Jain issued a three page order holding that installing the statue at a makeshift temple in the ABHM building, followed by its public unveiling, all sans permission of local administration amounted to violation of provisions of the MP Public Places Act 2001.
The collector in accordance with the powers vested to him under the 2001 law ordered that the ABHM local leader Jaiveer Bhardwaj himself remove the statue within an hour from receiving the order, failing which the statue will be removed by authorities.
With the ABHM leaders not removing the statue in an hour, the Godse statue was removed from the makeshift Hutatma Nathuram Godse temple on the first floor of the ABHM building situated in Daulatganj-Lashkar area of Gwalior.
Reacting to the development, the ABHM leader Dr Jaiveer Bhardwaj said “we’ll protest across the state on Wednesday, the removal of the statue as well as the detention of our worker by the police. We’re also taking opinion from legal experts to move court against the district administration and police’s Tuesday evening action.”
On November 15, to mark the 68th anniversary of the execution of Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi, the right-wing outfit Hindu Mahasabha installed Godse’s metallic statue in its office at Gwalior.