The pedestal and base of newly installed busts of Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Gopal Mukherjee at the intersection of APC Road and Ram Mohan Roy Road were allegedly vandalised around midnight on Saturday, police said. The busts were to be inaugurated on Monday.

The busts were being installed on the footpath beside a traffic police kiosk. Work on the installation had been underway for nearly a week.

One person had been arrested in connection with the alleged vandalism by Sunday evening.

The BJP government has declared Monday, Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s birth anniversary, a public holiday. Union home minister Amit Shah is scheduled to pay floral tributes at Mookerjee’s ancestral residence in Bhowanipore.

“We were supposed to inaugurate the statues on Monday. We had asked the workers on Saturday to put in a few extra hours so that the work could be completed on time,” said Saumajit Roy Chowdhury, BJP North Kolkata Yuva vice-president.

Roy Chowdhury alleged that residents alerted party workers about the incident.

“At around 1am, we were informed that some people had tried to vandalise the pedestal where the cement nameplates had been installed. When we reached the spot, we found that several broken tiles were lying around, “ he said.

“The workers had been here every day for almost a week and were trying to finish the installation before Monday. When we opened our shops this morning, we found the pedestal damaged and police had already reached the spot,” a shop owner in the area said.

Roy Chowdhury lodged a complaint with the Amherst Street police station, reporting the vandalism and mentioning that the incident hurt their religious sentiments.

Police have drawn up a case against unknown persons and have arrested one person. He was identified as Bapi Hazra, 26, a resident of Narkeldanga.

Hazra was produced before a court that remanded him to police custody till July 9.

Police said they had recovered and seized broken tiles and fragments of the partially damaged cement nameplate from the site.

“We have seized the broken pieces of tiles and the partially broken cement nameplate from the spot. We are checking the CCTV footage,” an officer posted in the area said.

A senior officer of the North Division, who visited the site, said an investigation had been initiated.

“We have secured the CCTV footage and are examining it to check the presence of any associates of the accused,” the officer said.

The police cordoned off the area around the vandalised structure on Sunday.