23 January,2015 10:02 AM IST | | Shirish Vaktania
Police on the hunt for youngsters who were captured on CCTV throwing stones on memorial erected in the middle of the street in Mumbai's Mira Road area, in remembrance of those martyred during 26/11
Police are on the hunt for two youngsters in Mira Road, who desecrated a memorial at Amar Jawan chowk in the wee hours of Monday. A local noticed the broken glass façade of the memorial and complained to the police. The police have retrieved footage from the CCTV cameras installed on the spot, which capture the duo in action.
The Amar Jawan memorial in Mira Road (East) was damaged
The incident occurred around 4.30 am on Monday at the memorial in Mira Road (East), which was erected by India Unbound, a magazine based in Mira Road, in remembrance of the officials from security forces who lost their lives during the deadly 26/11 attacks of 2008.
A huge stone in the wee hours of Monday by two miscreants
According to the police, Nityanand Pandey, the editor of the magazine, noticed the desecrated memorial and informed the police. Cops then managed to recover CCTV footage of the area of the past two days, and saw two youngsters committing the crime. In the footage, the accused can first be seen walking towards the memorial, when a biker passes by and they retreat.
In their second attempt, one of them finds a big stone and hurls it at the memorial, breaking its glass façade. Both flee the spot when they succeed in their destruction of a monument to those who sacrificed their lives for citizens. During both their attempts, the duo pretended to cross the road while approaching the memorial.
The video and the photographs of the damaged memorial are being shared on Facebook and Twitter. Senior Inspector Dhanaji Shirsagar, of Mira Road police station, also known as Kanakia police station, said, "We have registered the offence and also recovered CCTV footages of the incident. The accused damaged the shaheed smarak intentionally. We also collected the stone which they used to vandalise the memorial."
Previous damage
In the Azad Maidan riot of August 2012, which was originally supposed to be a mass protest against the August riots in Assam, the Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial was vandalised on August 11. The memorial is dedicated to the fighters of the revolt of 1857, often referred to as the First War of Independence.
