India demands swift action and denounces the damage and removal of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Australia.

The Mahatma Gandhi statue in Rowville, Melbourne, was vandalized on Tuesday. The Ministry of External Affairs denounced the incident and called for swift action against the perpetrators.

“We strongly condemn the vandalisation and removal of the Mahatma Gandhi statue located at the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville, Melbourne, by unidentified people,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a media query.

According to Jaiswal, India has “raised the matter strongly with Australian authorities,” pleading with them to move quickly to retrieve the lost statue and prosecute those responsible. According to Australia Today, the bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville, Melbourne, was taken early on January 12.

In 2021, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison inaugurated the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, which donated the 426-kg statue. According to a news site, the Victoria Police Knox Crime Investigation Unit has started looking into the theft, which has caused the Indian-Australian community in Melbourne to become more concerned.

In a statement given to Australia, the police According to reports today, at around 12.50 am, three unidentified people took the statue from the charity’s location on Kingsley Close in Rowville. As the investigation continues, authorities have advised scrap metal merchants to report any suspicious activity right away and to be on the lookout for anyone attempting to sell the bronze statue. Australian Indian Community Charitable Trust committee member Santosh Kumar told CNBC TV18 that the crime was “partially visible” on the building’s CCTV and had been reported the following day.

“We are sorry to see the statue of a national leader is gone…a white van came with people covered in balaclavas…details have been passed on to police,” Kumar said.

Victoria’s top opposition leaders have denounced the incident and shown support for the Indian-Australian community. The incident was described as extremely distressing by Evan Mulholland, the shadow minister for multicultural and multifaith relations, who also claimed that it compromises the sense of safety that mixed communities ought to experience.