Horse statue removed following social media outrage

Dehradun (Uttarakhand), July 12 (ANI): Following backlash on the social media over 'Shaktiman' being given more importance than the cops who lost their lives, the Uttarakhand Government has removed the statue of the police horse installed at the Police Lines. "The statue was here till last evening. Today morning when I came here, it wasn't here. It was a horse statue. I don't know where did it vanish," a local resident told ANI. Chief Minister Harish Rawat was supposed to inaugurate the 'Shaktiman Park' named after the police horse, who was critically maimed in a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally carried out by MP Ganesh Joshi earlier on March 14. However, Rawat skipped the inaugural ceremony yesterday and left the venue soon after his visit. Shaktiman was a well-trained 13-year-old horse of the Uttarakhand Mounted Police. When the horse was deployed by the police during a BJP rally, Joshi had allegedly attacked the horse's leg with a baton, critically injuring the animal. The outrage over this incident of gross animal abuse grew so large that Joshi was even briefly arrested. The white-coloured Kathiawari horse succumbed to its injuries on April 20. [caption id="attachment_106375" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A day before: Chief minister Harish Rawat took everyone by surprise when he skipped the inauguration of the statue of police horse Shaktiman which had been installed by Uttarakhand Police in Police Lines.[/caption] - Via Bhatkallys News Service