Culprits made to restore vandalised Hampi pillars
Acting on court order, ASI makes four youth pay fine too as ordered by court.
BalLari: The four youth who had vandalised pillars at the UNESCO's world heritage site, Hampi's Vishnu temple complex, reportedly re-erected them after being ordered by the court to do so.
"Some of the pillars have been reerected by the youth in the presence of our personnel after the court order", said Mr Kalimuthu, deputy superintending archeologist, Archeological Survey of India, Hampi mini circle.
According to him, Judge Poornima Yadav of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court in Hosapete has not only imposed Rs 70,000 fine on each one of the four accused, but they were also made to assist ASI personnel to reerect the pillars and give assurances to the court that they would not repeat such a mistake.
"They were released after payment of total fine Rs 2.80 lakh and a report on re-erection of the pillars was submitted to the court", he said.
The four accused - Ayush from Madhya Pradesh, Raja Babu Chowdary, Raj Aryan and Rajesh Kumar Chowdary from Bihar - had filmed their act of toppling the pillars in a video that went viral in the social media. The police however, took a stringent view of the matter and formed four teams to track down and arrest the accused persons.