The dazzling opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2010 might have silenced many critics, but not the anti-Games graffiti artists.
Despite the presence of more than 5,000 security personnel around the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, several Games hoardings were vandalised on the eve of the opening ceremony.
On Sunday morning, the hoardings near CGO Complex and Hotel Aman on Lodhi Road had anti-Games slogans such as 'Loot' written on them in red. Other wraps in the area had been defaced, too.
In two hoardings on Zakir Hussain Marg, Shera, the Games mascot, is missing his face. “Some people came in the early hours of Sunday. They cut out Shera’s face and threw it outside our house,” said eight-year-old Munna, who lives in a shack behind one of the hoardings.
Hindustan Times had reported about vandalism and anti-Games graffiti around Games venues earlier as well.
The police in the area, however, didn’t receive any complaint so far. “We can book the vandals under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act 2007, but no complaint has been registered,” said a senior police officer.