3 NSUI workers held for defacing Savarkar's name board in Yelahanka

A group of activists of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the students' wing of the Congress party, staged a protest demanding that the flyover be renamed.

Bengaluru: Three people were arrested on Tuesday for defacing a name board of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at the flyover named after the Hindutva ideologue in Yelahanka, police officials said. 

The suspects were identified as Lakshyaraj, Nischay Gowda and Praveen, purportedly from the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party. 

According to the police, the trio painted the name board black between 1.30 pm and 2 pm. They wore NSUI scarves, raised 'Inquilab Zindabad' and held up Bhagat Singh’s posters, sources said. 

A senior police officer said officials detained the trio. After a complaint was filed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), a First Information Report (FIR) was registered and they were arrested. Further investigations are on, the officer said. 

The incident took place on the birth anniversary of Savarkar.

"They had put black paint on the board. We have registered a case under the Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Public Property Act and have arrested three people. They were wearing scarfs of NSUI," a senior police officer said.

The board was restored later, he said.

The flyover was named after Savarkar when BJP was in power amid opposition from certain sections, including the Congress.

R Ashoka, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly slammed the ruling Congress following the incident.

Posting on social media platform X, he alleged, "While Veer Savarkar's photo adorned @RahulGandhi 's Bharat Jodo yatra in Karnataka, @INCKarnataka and its affiliates continue to denigrate Veer Savarkar by defacing the signboard of Veer Savarkar flyover in Bengaluru."

"Congress has long abandoned the values of Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar who had admired Veer Savarkar, but what about Indira Gandhi, one of their own, who too hailed Veer Savarkar as a great revolutionary?" he asked.

"Has CM @siddaramaiah and DCM @DKShivakumar given up on Indira Gandhi too just because it doesn’t suit their narrow and bigoted vote bank politics?" he said.

(With PTI inputs)