Chennai, Jul 17 (IANS): Security was beefed up in Coimbatore on Friday after the statue of E.V. Ramasamy popularly known as Periyar was splashed with saffron colour paint in a locality, police said.

Periyar was the founder of Dravida Kazhagam (DK) a rationalist movement.

According to the police, the paint splash must have been done early in the morning by some miscreants.

Later the followers of Periyar cleaned the statue.

Members of DMK, MDMK, DK and other organisations held a demonstration in front of the statue demanding the arrest of the culprits.

The police are checking the CCTV footages near the spot to identify the miscreants.

The incident comes at the back of protest by Tamil Nadu BJP against YouTube channel Karuppar Koottam that had aired an obscene video denigrating Hindu God Lord Murugan and the prayer Kanda Shasti Kavacham sung seeking his blessings.

Lord Murugan is the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi.

Police have arrested Sentil Vasan and Sundara Natarajan who were associated with the controversial YouTube channel in this connection on receipt of a complaint from the state BJP.