Shivaji statue collapse: Police custody till September 10 for two accused

Mumbai: The Sindhudurg police on Thursday told a court there that the materials recovered from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue which collapsed last month at Rajkot fort in Malvan were rusted and it needs to be ascertained if items of subpar quality were used by the accused.

The police, while seeking custody of sculptor-contractor Jaydeep Apte and consultant Chetan Patil, said interrogation was required to find out what kind of materials they had used to design and construct the 35-foot statue.

The statue of the iconic Maratha warrior king collapsed at the Rajkot fort in Malvan tehsil of the district on August 26, nearly nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on Navy Day.

While Patil was arrested on August 30 from Kolhapur, Apte was taken into custody on Wednesday night from Kalyan in Thane district, nearly 10 days after an FIR was registered in connection with the incident.

They were both produced before a local court in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district on Thursday which remanded them in police custody till September 10. The police, in their remand-seeking note submitted to the court, said it needs to interrogate the accused to find out from where they purchased the materials used to construct the statue and if they were of sub-par quality. “Nutbolts, iron rods and other materials of the statue were rusted. It needs to be seen what kind of material was used for the statue by the accused and if it was of subpar quality,” it said.

The police said it also needs to collect the mould and dye and the sample of materials used for the statue.

It needs to be ascertained if the accused had carried out a feasibility audit while designing and constructing the statue, police added.