Vandals’ chief Jani,two aides held

STF SSP Satyendra Vir Singh said Jani and Rajendra Singh were being brought to Lucknow. .

The statue was damaged on Thursday afternoon,minutes after Jani addressed a press conference demanding that the state government remove the statues of Mayawati,as the Samajwadi Party had promised before the Assembly elections,otherwise his organisation would destroy these after 72 hours.

While Jani belongs to Meerut,Rajendra Singh is a resident of Khamini village in Mathura district.

The police have identified Jani’s four other associates. They are Sagun Tyagi,a resident of NR Colony,New Delhi; Pavan Sharma,Akash,Rajesh Kashyap,and Gaurav Chaudhary,whose addresses could not be known.

Police said Jani and his associates had conducted a recce at Ambedkar Memorial and procured hammers a day before attacking the statue. They had reportedly checked into three rooms of a hotel in Naka police station area of the city on Wednesday around 9.30 am and went to the house of press conference organisers in a private taxi.

Three persons — Alok Srivastava,a freelance journalist,his son Arpit,and Vishal Mishra,a PR firm owner — were arrested on Thursday for organising Jani’s press conference. A case has already been lodged at Gomti Nagar police station in this regard.

Lucknow IG/SSP Ashutosh Pandey said a police team had been sent to Kanpur in search of one Rajeev Kalra who had spoken to Jani over the phone on Thursday.

The UP Special Range Security Battalion,which is meant to protect the monuments,will now identify sensitive points in the memorials and parks and beef up security there.

The battalion’s Assistant Commandant Suman Chaudhary on Friday asked all five company commanders and 14 platoon commanders to identify critical points.

“The number of security personnel would be increased at these sensitive places to ensure that such incidents are not repeated,” Chaudhary said. Already,security has been beefed up at Ambedkar Memorial and its outer areas.

After the incident,officials of the Management,Security and Maintenance committee of Memorials,Institutions,Parks and Gardens,had written a letter to Principal Security (Home),raising questions over the role of the UP Special Range Security Battalion.

The previous Mayawati government had,in November 2010,set up the battalion to guard the memorials and parks. The battalion currently has 602 male constables,148 female constables and 70 head constables. They are supervised by 14 platoon commanders,five company commanders,and three assistant commandants. The top two posts of Commandant and Deputy Commandant have been vacant since March when the SP government transferred these officials.