India on Tuesday condemned the theft of a Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Australian Indian Community Center in Melbourne and said it strongly raised the matter with Australian authorities to recover the missing statue.
The Knox Crime Investigation Unit in the Australian state of Victoria is currently investigating the crime. (x/videograb)According to Australian media reports, the bronze statue was allegedly removed from Melbourne’s Rowville Community Center in the early hours of January 12.
The Knox Crime Investigation Unit in the Australian state of Victoria is currently investigating the crime.
“We strongly condemn the vandalism and removal of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Australian Indian Community Center in Rowville, Melbourne by unidentified persons,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
“We have strongly raised the matter with the Australian authorities and requested them to take immediate action to recover the missing statue and hold the culprits accountable,” he said.
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The statue, weighing 420 kg, was cut from its base with an angle grinder, leaving only the legs. Local police suspect it was stolen by three unidentified criminals and have warned local scrap metal dealers to be on the lookout for anyone trying to sell the statue.
The statue was gifted by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and unveiled in 2021 by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a symbol of the strong ties between India and Australia.
Leaders of Melbourne’s Indian community expressed grief and called for stronger protection for such cultural sites.
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The same statue has been vandalized before. Within a day of its inauguration in 2021, the statue was vandalized by unidentified persons, prompting condemnation in Australia and India.
