Bombay HC Grants Bail to Sculptor Jaydeep Apte in Statue Collapse Case
The Bombay High Court has granted bail to sculptor Jaydeep Apte in connection with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue collapse incident
Mumbai, India, Jaydeep Apte, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Statue Collapse
Mumbai: So, here’s the scoop. The Bombay High Court just granted bail to Jaydeep Apte, the sculptor behind that big Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue that collapsed last year. This all went down on a Friday, and he’s now out after posting a personal bond of Rs 25,000.
Apte claims the statue fell due to strong winds. He had to go to the High Court after his bail request was turned down by a lower court. The statue, which was 28 feet tall, fell on August 26, 2024, just months after it was unveiled by Prime Minister Modi.
It cost a whopping Rs 2.44 crore to put up, and Apte has a diploma in sculpting from JJ School of Arts. His lawyer argued that since no one got hurt when the statue fell, it’s really just a case of negligence, not something more serious.
There was an FIR filed by the Public Works Department, and Apte turned himself in afterward. He said he built the statue based on a work order from the Naval Dockyard, and they never complained about any issues with his work.
His plea pointed out that the PWD officers who filed the FIR don’t have the technical know-how in metallurgy. They could have taken better precautions since the statue was meant to last for ages.
Interestingly, another guy named Dr. Chetan Patil, who was also arrested, was in charge of the pedestal and its stability. He got bail earlier, with the court saying there wasn’t enough evidence to pin anything on him.