Chhatrapati statue crash: Maha court sends sculptor Jaydeep Apte to police custody till Sep 10

Sindhudurg (Maharashtra):  A Sindhudurg Court has sent sculptor Jaydeep Apte — the prime accused who constructed the ill-fated statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj that crashed on August 26 at Rajkot Fort — to police custody till September 10, an official said here on Thursday.

Simultaneously, his aide and the project’s structural consultant Chetan Patil, who was nabbed from Kolhapur on August 30, was given extended police custody till September 10, after his five-day police remand ended on Thursday.

Apte had surrendered to the police late on Wednesday night and was subsequently placed under arrest by the Bazargate Police Station in Kalyan town of Thane district.

Early on Thursday, he was whisked off to Malvan town, which has registered a case against the duo for the Chhatrapati figurine crash that erupted into a massive political crisis and sparked a public furore.

The Apte-Patil duo were produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class Malvan Court, Mahesh K. Devkate amid tight police security.

At the hearing, the police prosecutor Tushar Bhange strongly argued and sought police custody for the accused, saying that the investigators wanted to find out where Apte was hiding for nearly nine days since the statue crash, and related aspects to the case.

However, the accused’s lawyer Ganesh Sovani argued against the police remand, pointing out that Apte had already surrendered before the police.

After hearing both sides, Mahesh K. Devkate granted police custody to Apte, and extended Patil’s police remand by another five days, both ending on September 10.

Shortly after the incident, the Malvan Police lodged a case in the matter, invoking Bharatiya Nayaya Sanhita Sections 109, 110, 125, 318 and 3(5) pertaining to attempt to murder, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, conspiracy, cheating, etc.

On August 26, the 28-feet tall hollow bronze statue mounted on a 10-feet high pedestal suddenly crashed below and broke into multiple pieces, ostensibly due to inclement weather conditions, and later erupted into a massive row.

The figurine was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 4, 2023, coinciding with Navy Day celebrations, and it tumbled down in barely eight months.

Later, as the controversy snowballed with potential implications in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, PM Modi, CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar tendered individual apologies for the monumental tragedy.

Meanwhile, in Sangli on Thursday, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi demanded that PM Modi must tender an apology to all the people of Maharashtra.

Unimpressed by the apologies, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT) is carrying out a serial agitation in different parts of the state alleging massive corruption in the statue project and attempts by the MahaYuti government to shield the accused sculptor.

–IANS