Bengal govt forms panel to probe Vidyasagar bust desecration

The West Bengal government has formed a five-member committee to look into the desecration of the bust of Vidyasagar during a BJP rally in the city earlier this month, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.

The panel will be headed by newly-appointed Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, and includes Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma, Additional Commissioner of Police Jawed Shamin and Principal of Vidyasagar College Goutam Kundu, she said.

"During the elections, miscreants destroyed the bust of Vidyasagar. We have formed a committee... It will look into the incident and its causes," Banarjee said at the state secretariat.

Two FIRs have already been lodged in the case and 35 people have been arrested, the chief minister said.

The college named after Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, a key figure in the Bengal renaissance, was ransacked and a bust of the 19th century social reformer shattered allegedly by BJP workers in clashes during a roadshow by party president Amit Shah in the city on May 14.