19th century poet Michael's statue defaced in Bengal

Kolkata, March 10
A life-size statue of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, a prominent poet during the 19th century Bengal renaissance, was found defaced in Raniganj of West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district on Saturday, police and eye-witnesses said.

Dutt's face was smudged with red colour by unknown miscreants, triggering condemnation in the political circles as also among the locals.

The act was discovered by morning walkers, who reported to the police .

The Asansol municipality workers then washed and cleaned the statue.

Dutt was one of the first Indians to write poems in English, and converted to Christianity in his young age. A scholar -- he knew a number of languages, including Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, Dutt was also a playwright.

The attack on Dutt's statue is only the latest in a series of acts targeting statues of political icons and country's leaders.

Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin's statues were vandalised in Tripura amid post-poll violence earlier this month.

Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, E.V. Ramaswamy, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Syama Prasad Mookerjee have been attacked at various places in the country since then.