NEW DElHI: The Delhi Police on Wednesday beefed up security around the statues in the city. In the aftermath of the lenin and the Periyar statues being razed down, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik held a meeting with the senior police officers including the Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) and directed all the Station House Officers (SHOs) to man the statues.
A senior police officer, part of the meeting, told The Pioneer, "74 statues are in the South Zone while 51 in the North. Out of these, maximum statues in the North zone are those of Dr BR Ambedkar. Patnaik has directed the rank and file of the force to increase beat patrolling and deploy armed staff around the statues. law and order should not be allowed to be disturbed by the vandals," he said.
Police said that on Wednesday afternoon, a wireless message from the police headquarters was sent to the 14 district police heads to brief the station house officers (SHO) of their areas to beef up the security and deploy the policemen around the statues.
Police officials said that they are also preparing a list of sensitive and highly sensitive statues which may be harmed by the miscreants. "An alert has been issued and adequate number of personnel has been deployed around the statutes. If anyone found to be creating chaos, will be dealt with," said a district DCP who did not wish to be named.
The vandalism began after the lenin's statue was bulldozed down allegedly by BJP supporters in Tripura. later, reports of vandalism of statues of other ideologues from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu also started coming in.