Police arrests structural consultant in Shivaji statue collapse case

In Maharashtra, a structural consultant was arrested on Friday in connection with the collapse of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Sindhudurg district earlier this week.Chetan Patil, a resident of Kolhapur, was apprehended early in the morning in a joint operation by Kolhapur crime branch and Malvan police. He was then transferred to Malvan police custody. Patil, who was named in the FIR in the case, had previously denied being the structural consultant for the project. He claimed he was only tasked with working on the platform for the statue, while a Thane-based company handled the statue-related work.
The 35-foot statue of the 17th-century Maratha warrior king at Rajkot fort in Sindhudurg's Malvan collapsed  on Monday.The Statue was unveiled on December 4 last year as part of the Navy Day celebrations conducted, for the first time, in Sindhudurg, aimed at honouring the legacy of the Maratha Navy and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj towards maritime defence and security, and its historical linkage with the modern Indian Navy, the Defence Ministry release said.