West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday set up a five-member committee that will look into the vandalism at the Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar College in Kolkata on May 14.
Mamata Banerjee forms an inquiry committee to look into the vandalism of Vidyasagar statue pic.twitter.com/gDWsweCAnE
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) May 27, 2019
Informing about the committee, Banerjee told reporters, “Today, we have formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident of vandalism at Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar College. The committee will be headed by new Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.”
#WestBengal CM @MamataOfficial: New Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay & five member Committee will probe into the incident of vandalism of 200-year-old #VidyasagarStatue. pic.twitter.com/sbkLVAK24D
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) May 27, 2019
The committee will also include Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma and Principal of Ishwar Vidyasagar College Gautam Kundu.
On May 14, clashes broke out during BJP chief Amit Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The statue of Bengali writer and 19th century reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised during the violence.
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The BJP and the Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) have accused each other of desecrating the statue and for the violence during the campaign. After the vandalism, the Election Commission had asked parties to stop campaigning a day ahead of schedule.
A day after the incident, several TMC leaders, including the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, had put Vidyasagar’s picture as their Twitter display picture.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had offered to build another statue of Vidyasagar at the same spot, which Banerjee had refused to accept. West Bengal has reported the most cases of violence during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.