International media reports say some of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes have been stolen from a government building in India on the anniversary of his 150th birthday.

An urn was stolen from the Bapu Bhawan memorial in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where they have been kept since 1948, according to local news site The Wire.

A poster bearing Gandhi’s face was also defaced, with the Hindi words for”anti-national” scrawled across it.  

Mangaldeep Tiwari, the memorial’s caretaker, reportedly discovered the crime on October 2.

October 2 of 2019 marked the 150th anniversary of Ghandhi’s birth.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British Rule, and in turn inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.

Gandhi also sought peace between Muslims and Hindus amidst tensions that arose following India’s independence.  He was assassinated five months later by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who shot him at point blank range.