Sindhudurg police arrest consultant in Shivaji statue collapse case
The Sindhudurg police have arrested Chetan Patil, the structural consultant for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue that collapsed in Malvan on Monday
MUMBAI: The Sindhudurg police have arrested Chetan Patil, the structural consultant for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue that collapsed in Malvan on Monday. Sindhudurg SP, Saurabh Agrawal, confirmed this development . “We arrested Chetan Patil from Kolhapur on Friday, in coordination with Kolhapur police. We are interrogating him. We will seek his remand on Saturday.” He also said that their teams are searching for the sculptor, Jaydeep Apte. “Our team is working on various leads.”
The Sindhudurg police have also booked 42 persons for clashes between workers of political parties at Malvan Fort two days ago. They are mainly workers of Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP). Police have also registered offence against 80 others, but not by name.
The SP also said that metal extracts of the statue are being sent to laboratory for tests, either in Pune or in Kolhapur. A team of Indian Navy, led by commodore Pawan Dhingra, is at the spot of the collapse, investigating the case, Sindhudurg district collector Kishor Tawade said. “We have cordoned off the area as per navy’s request.”
Meanwhile the state government has appointed a committee under additional chief secretary (PWD) Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar to suggest ways to get a new statue erected. The committee will meet next week and finish the tender process within a month, according to PWD sources.
Besides Mhaiskar, the committee has Sadashiv Salunke, secretary PWD (roads), commodore S Doraibabu of Indian Navy, R S Jangid of IIT Mumbai, S Parida of IIT Mumbai, Rajiv Mishra, director of J J School of architecture, Raje Raghuji Angre naval historian and descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s admiral Kanhoji Angre, historian Jaisingh Pawar, and others. Earlier chief minister Eknath Shinde had said that costs are not an issue and the state PWD will bear the costs.
The government on Friday also issued a GR constituting a technical committee to probe the reasons behind the collapse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue at Rajkot in Malvan on Monday. Besides naming the reasons behind the collapse, it will also have to fix responsibility.
The committee, headed by commodore Pawan Dhingra, also has Sanjay Dashpute secretary PWD (buildings), Vikas Ramgude, former chief engineer of PWD and a structural engineer, RS Jangid of IIT Mumbai civil engineering department and S Parida of IIT Mumbai metallurgical sciences department.