Shahjahanpur (UP), March 25 Protests were held across Shahjahanpur on Wednesday over the demolition of statues of freedom fighters here, allegedly during road beautification work, even as authorities took action against the erring company and suspended two municipal officials at the direction of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Members of various groups held demonstrations throughout the day, alleging that the statues of Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Roshan Singh at the Shaheed memorial site were removed with the connivance of the district administration, and demanded a high-level inquiry.
The statues were demolished by bulldozers on Sunday night, and the remains were dumped at a garbage site, sparking angry reactions, including from opposition parties. An FIR was filed on Tuesday evening based on a complaint from a municipal official, alleging that the company, hired for road beautification/widening, carried out the demolition without the knowledge of the civic body.
The Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan Committee, during a press conference on Wednesday, claimed that the statues were brought down overnight under the pretext of beautification.
Committee member Sudhir Vidyarthi said the incident coincided with the martyrdom day of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, and claimed that the statues of the martyrs of the Kakori case were deliberately targeted.
He said that honouring martyrs is the greatest "beautification," adding that the incident had triggered outrage across the country.
A relative of Ashfaqullah Khan said that protests would continue until the statues are reinstalled on proper foundations. He also claimed to have received calls from across the country, as well as from organizations abroad, condemning the act.
At a separate protest, Congress district president Rajneesh Gupta called for a high-level investigation into the matter and demanded that members of Ashfaqullah Khan's family should be included in the inquiry committee.
Members of another local group, the Bahujan Army, also submitted a memorandum, demanding that stringent charges, including sedition, be invoked against those responsible and that the statues be restored within a week.
Several other organizations held protests at the collectorate and burned effigies, while demonstrations were also reported from rural areas of the district.
Chief Minister Adityanath on Tuesday evening expressed strong displeasure at the incident, following which the company was blacklisted and a junior engineer and an assistant engineer of the municipal corporation were suspended.
"Acting on the chief minister's orders, an FIR was immediately registered against the company responsible for damaging the martyrs' statues during the road widening project," a statement said.
"The chief minister stated that the officials under whose supervision the work was being executed must be suspended with immediate effect. Following CM Yogi Adityanath's directive, the company has been blacklisted with immediate effect, and the work contract has been revoked," a statement by the Uttar Pradesh government said.