Mumbai: A structural consultant on Friday was apprehended in connection with the recent collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district.
Chetan Patil, from Kolhapur, was detained early today through a collaborative effort by the Kolhapur crime branch and the Malvan police, after which he was placed in the custody of the Malvan police.
Patil, cited in the FIR, had earlier refuted claims of being the project’s structural consultant. He asserted his role was confined to the statue’s platform construction, while a company from Thane was responsible for the statue itself.
The 35-foot effigy of the 17th-century Maratha monarch at Rajkot Fort in Malvan toppled at approximately 1 p.m. on Monday, August 26, not even a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it.
Its collapse has sparked a political uproar in Maharashtra, on the verge of elections. The state government has constituted a technical committee to investigate the cause of the fall. The Eknath Shinde-led administration also noted that the Indian Navy managed the project.
The Navy, for its part, has stated that it conceptualized and directed the installation of the Shivaji statue in collaboration with the state government, which financed the initiative. The Navy has expressed its dedication to contributing to the statue’s prompt repair, restoration, and reinstallation.
