Crashed Shivaji statue's structural consultant nabbed in Kolhapur; sculptor still missing

Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Aug 30: In a breakthrough, Kolhapur Police tracked and nabbed Chetan Patil, the structural consultant of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj bronze statue which crashed in the Rajkot Fort in Malvan, Sindhudurg, officials said here on Friday. Patil had been absconding hours after the incident on August 26 (Monday) that has sparked a massive public outrage and political furore, as the sculptor Jaydeep Apte still eludes the police net.

At least six probe teams of the Kolhapur Police, Sindhudurg Police and Thane Police were on the lookout for the duo whose mobile phones were off, but Patil was caught last night. The Kolhapur Police have handed him over to the Sindhudurg Police which will take him to Malvan coastal town where the tragedy occurred and the case has been registered.

Apte, who lives in Thane district, had built the 28-feet tall statue erected on a 10-feet high pedestal in the Rajkot Fort, had also disappeared after the case was lodged by Malvan Police. Apte, in an interaction with a Marathi publication last year, had admitted that though a statue of such dimensions could normally take up to three years to construct, he managed to do it in barely three months.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has accused the MahaYuti government of corruption in the matter of the statue construction and demanded the resignation of CM Eknath Shinde, the Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and others, while Deputy CM Ajit Pawar has tendered a public apology over the monumental tragedy.

As the MahaYuti went on the back foot, the MVA carried out a series of vociferous protests across the state, took out a procession that resulted in a scuffle between the SS (UBT)-BJP activists near Rajkot Fort, and will continue the agitations over the coming days. The Indian Navy (IN) said that a joint technical committee headed by its officials along with Maharashtra officials and technical experts will be set up to probe the incident, subsequent to the exceptional weather conditions in Sindhudurg that day.

The statue was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 4, 2023, as part of the Navy Day celebrations, and the project was conceptualised and steered by the IN in collaboration with the state government which financed it. The IN said that it “remains committed to assisting in all measures to repair, restore, and reinstate the statue at the earliest,” echoing the state government’s assurances.