New Delhi: Days after a 35-foot statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Rajkot fort in Sindhudurg came crashing down, a contractor and a structural consultant have been charged with attempt to murder and culpable homicide in connection with the incident.
It was on Monday afternoon that the statue, which was unveiled by PM Modi on December 4, 2023, came down. Soon after the incident, a political slugfest took off and the controversy snowballed into a blame game.
Based on a complaint filed by the public works department against contractor Jaydeep Apte and structural consultant Chetan Patil, the Malvan police filed an FIR.
According to Sindhudurg SP Saurabh Kumar Agrawal, the forensic team has gathered samples from the site. “No arrest has been made. The artist and structural contractor have been booked. The team will go through the documents and action will be taken based on the FSL report,” he added.
In the FIR, the state PWD pointed out that they had transferred Rs 2.4 crore to Navy for the statue’s construction. If found guilty, the duo — booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 109, 110, 125, 318, and 3(5) — face up to 10 years imprisonment. The FIR underlined “poor construction quality, with rusted nuts and bolts discovered in the structure”.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Vaibhav Naik and two of his associates Harishchandra Khobrekar and Mandar Keni have also been booked for vandalism at the local PWD office.
Besides the State Government and specialists concerned, the Navy has deputed a team to immediately probe the cause of this unfortunate accident and initiate steps to repair, restore and reinstate the statue at the earliest, the police reportedly said.
Soon after the statue’s collapse, CM Eknath Shinde was quoted as saying by Free Press Journal, “The statue was designed and erected by the Navy.” He later said that the statue collapsed because of damage caused by strong winds. He added that the government will ascertain the reasons behind this incident and reinstall the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at the same place.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said the statue was not built by the state government. Fadnavis said the Indian Navy constructed the statue and his party’s government in the state will erect a bigger statue of the warrior king.
In response, the Indian Navy called the collapse an “unfortunate incident” and ordered an investigation into the matter. Opposition parties had turned on the heat on the state government following the statue collapse incident. They had blamed “poor quality of work” behind it.
