Silchar, Feb 25: A statue of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was vandalised overnight between Monday and Tuesday at Pailapool market in the Lakhipur police station area of Cachar district, officials said on Wednesday.

Police have detained one person and seized the excavator used to uproot the statue. “We have no eyewitnesses, but CCTV footage shows unknown miscreants demolishing it with an excavator,” said Lakhipur police station officer-in-charge Sankar Dayal.

An FIR has been registered, though the excavator driver remains at large, Dayal added.

Congress Silchar president Sajal Acherjee alleged that the incident was a planned attack aimed at creating tension ahead of the state assembly elections expected in March-April.