The Bombay High Court has granted bail to Jaydeep Apte, the sculptor behind the 28-feet statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which collapsed in Malvan last August. Justice N R Borkar approved Apte’s bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 during a hearing on Friday.
The statue, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rajkot Fort in Malvan on December 4, 2023, faced a disastrous collapse on August 26, 2023. Erected on a 12-feet pedestal and costing Rs 2.44 crore, the statue’s fall was attributed to gusty winds according to Apte’s bail plea.
Advocate Ganesh Sovani, representing Apte, argued that the incident, which fortunately did not result in any injuries, did not warrant further custody of the sculptor. He highlighted that Apte, proprietor of M/s Artistry, constructed the bronze statue following a work order from the Naval Dockyard issued on September 8, 2023.
The plea also emphasized that there had been no complaints from the Naval Dockyard authority regarding any artistic deficiencies or shortcomings in the statue prior to the incident. Furthermore, it criticized the quick filing of an FIR—within nine hours of the collapse—by state Public Works Department (PWD) personnel, who Sovani claimed lacked technical expertise in metallurgy.
