Elephant statue theft: Police question security personnel at Lucknow’s Ambedkar Park
The elephant statue had gone missing from the fountain area of the Bhim Rao Ambedkar memorial in Lucknow between 1 am and 9 am on July 25
Security personnel, who were on duty on the night of July 25 (Monday), are being questioned in connection with the theft of a 3kg brass elephant statue installed at Lucknow’s high-security Ambedkar Park, which was built by the erstwhile BSP government. The statue had gone missing from the fountain area of the Bhim Rao Ambedkar memorial, phase 1, near 1090 crossing between 1 am and 9 am on July 25.

The security personnel, Niyaz Ahmad, had lodged the FIR of theft against unidentified persons at Gautampalli police station on Tuesday. Former chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government over the theft. In a series of tweets on Thursday, she said the BSP government had constructed the grand Bhim Rao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Memorial to honour great saints, gurus and men born in Dalit and Other Backward Class families in the country.
Police officials supervising the probe said the theft of a brass statue was shocking as security guards are present round the clock, and the entire area remains under the control of a special security force meant for guarding these memorials.
“A security guard, Pramod Kumar Pandey, was deployed there for duty at that time, and the statue was found missing when the security officers counted the statue at the time shift change,” said a cop at Gautampalli police station. He said Pandey had been quizzed once but feigned ignorance about the missing statue.
The cop said there was almost no chance for an outsider to enter the memorial without being noticed by the security guards and taking away the statue. He said that the authorities who manage the memorial’s maintenance and security have been asked to provide a list of all the security personnel deployed in that particular area. “They will be quizzed one by one,” the cop added.