3 min readJul 18, 2026 02:18 PM IST
Two people have been arrested in Guwahati for allegedly “damaging public property” while painting a mural of activist Sonam Wangchuk on Friday night, a police official said on Saturday. Wangchuk, who had been on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for the past 20 days, was taken to Safdarjung Hospital in south Delhi on Saturday morning amid heavy police deployment at the protest site.
The development in Guwahati comes a day after a large mural of Wangchuk painted on a flyover pillar in the city drew eyeballs on Friday. Police said that an FIR has been registered in connection with that mural too, and that they are identifying those who had painted it.
A Guwahati East police official said that two people were apprehended by a patrol team on Friday night while they were in the process of painting on a wall.
“We have been seeing for the past few days that suddenly at night some people come and damage bridges and government building walls or campus walls, etc, which are public property. Some people paint it, and in the name of painting it is damaged. Last night our patrol party found two youths damaging a wall on the road leading towards Jyoti Bishnu auditorium. They were putting different colours on the wall and damaging it. So we apprehended them and have registered a case against them in the Dispur police station,” he said.
He said that when they were questioned, they said that they were making a painting of Sonam Wangchuk.
On Friday, a large mural painted on Thursday night, reportedly by students of the Government College of Art & Craft, on a flyover pillar in the city had drawn attention. The painting depicts the activist and is accompanied by the text “Save Sonam Wangchuk.” Police said that they have registered a case in connection with this painting as well.
“This is becoming a trend that suddenly someone comes and destroys and tampers with public property, which is not acceptable. In Basistha, too, we have registered a case. There, at night, some people had come and painted on public property. We are identifying them, and we will take strict action,” said the official.
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Wangchuk has been protesting against the spate of exam paper leaks in the country.
Earlier this month, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that he had instructed DCs and SPs not to allow unauthorised paintings on flyovers and other public infrastructure, following an outcry over a mural of superstar Zubeen Garg being erased during a beautification drive in the city.
Sonam Wangchuk murals lead to 2 arrests and police scrutiny in Guwahati
‘This is becoming a trend that suddenly someone comes and destroys and tampers with public property, which is not acceptable,’ police officials said