Jaydeep Apte, sculptor of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue sent to police custody till Sept 10

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 5 (ANI): Jaydeep Apte, sculptor of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Statue, has been sent to police custody till September 10 by the magistrate court on Thursday. Apte was arrested on Wednesday.

“Sindhudurg Police has arrested sculptor Jaydeep Apte in connection with the collapse of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj,” said police.

Following Apte’s arrest, Maharahstra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that everyone is equal before the law and sculptor of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue will be investigated.

“I had said this earlier; everyone is equal before the law and he was bound to get arrested… Jaydeep Apte will now be investigated. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is our god and what happened was very unfortunate. Politizing the matter is very unfortunate,” CM Shinde told reporters.

Earlier, Chetan Patil, the structural consultant of the Shivaji Maharaj statue that collapsed in the Malvan area of Sindhudurg, was arrested from Kolhapur.

The FIR was registered under sections 109, 110, 125, 318, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as confirmed by Sindhudurg Police.

A 35-foot-tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Sindhudurg district collapsed on August 26. It was unveiled on December 4 last year as part of Navy Day celebrations and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The collapse of the statue of the Maratha state’s iconic founder has sparked a significant political war between leaders of the state, with opposition criticising the Eknath Shinde-led government for the collapse.