Tension prevailed for a while at Sri Rangaraja Puram mandal headquarters, 40 km from here, on Saturday after some unidentified persons vandalised the statue of the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
According to information, the statue was found damaged with its hand and face slashed with a sharp-edged object. The incident which came to light in the morning soon spread all over G.D. Nellore Assembly Constituency, which is represented by Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayanaswamy. A large number of YSR Congress Party activists rushed to the mandal headquarters and staged a protest by blocking the Chittoor-Puttur highway.
Speaking to the media, Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayanaswamy and APSRTC vice-chairman M.C. Vijayananda Reddy condemned the incident and urged the police to take immediate steps to arrest the culprits.
Deputy SP (Puttur) T.D. Yashwant and senior police officials from the Karveti Nagaram circle rushed to the spot and controlled the mob frenzy. Additional forces were deployed in sensitive areas to avert any untoward incident.
The Deputy SP said that after preliminary investigation, some suspects were identified and arrests would follow.
