One day after a lookout notice issued by the Sindhudurg District Superintendent of Police, the Kalyan Police arrested the sculptor Jaydeep Apte from his residence.
Apte was absconding following the collapse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's statue at the Rajkot Fort in Malvan, Sindhudurg district.
Apte, taking advantage of darkness, reached his residence in Kalyan to meet his wife and mother to avoid the police. However, the police arrested him from his residence.
The police have already arrested structural engineer Chetan Patil under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita.
The police had registered a case against him after a public outrage over the fall of the statue.
The lookout notice to arrest Apte if he tries to leave India through any national airport was issued on Tuesday.
Apte's family had gone to Shahapur to stay with their relatives after the incident.
The police went there and interrogated Apte's wife and mother.
Kalyan Police had repeatedly visited Apte's family to arrest him but could not do so.
This has also accused the MahaYuti government of shielding Apte, and corruption involved in the completion of the statue.
The statue was inaugurated in December 2023. But after just eight months on 26 August 2024 the 35-feet-statue collapsed.
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, and other MahaYuti leaders claimed that the statue fell due to high wind speed. But Opposition resisted the explanation of the Chief Minister and termed it as an act of corruption.
The Art Director of the statue also had clarified that permission was granted for a statue six feet in height but it was overruled and a 35-feet statue was erected.
The raging controversy saw first Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar apologising and later Chief Minister Shinde saying that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is their idol and he would not mind apologising 100 times to the people of the state and the country.
Thereafter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 30 apologised and sought forgiveness from the people of the country.
The state government has already promised a thorough investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress Spokesman Sachin Sawant, in his post on X, said, "Jaydeep Apte was arrested from his house. This means he came forward himself, not found by police. That much conclusion can be drawn. Anyway! Whether it took so long to find him because of blessings? This is the question."
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