The Madhya Pradesh Police on Wednesday filed a first information report against unidentified people for allegedly writing “traitor” before Mahatma Gandhi’s name on a poster in a museum in Rewa district, Hindustan Times reported. The incident took place when the world celebrated Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

Gandhi’s ashes, which were kept in a copper urn in Bapu Bhavan, were also stolen, News18 reported.

“Congress district president Gurmeet Singh Mangu lodged a complaint with police that some anti-social elements tried to deface the Mahatma Gandhi’s poster at Bapu Bhawan on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday,” Rewa Additional Superintendent of Police Shiv Kumar Verma said. “They also wrote Rashtradrohi [traitor] with a green ink on the poster,” he added.

A complaint was registered at Bichhiya police station under Section 295 for injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class of the Indian Penal Code.

The police said an investigation was underway in the case to find the accused.

Bichhiya Police Station in-charge Shashi Dhurve said the act of vandalism was pre-meditated. “We have deployed additional force in the area and also warned people not to take law in their hands,” he said.

The complainant and Congress leader Gurmeet Singh told The Wire: “Gandhi’s ideology has been shamed again. This unlawful act must have been done by the followers of Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. This madness must stop.”

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