Mumbai, Nov 21 (UNI) The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to a structural consultant for his alleged involvement in the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue at Malvan in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
While granting bail, a single-judge bench of Justice Anil Kilor observed that there was no case made out to implicate accused, as he had not been appointed as the statue’s structural designer and had only submitted a structural stability report for the pedestal, which was intact even after the collapse.
The consultant, Chetan Patil, approached the high court after a sessions court had rejected his bail plea, observing that there was prima facie evidence that iron was used instead of stainless steel for the 35-foot-tall statue.
In his bail plea, Patil had stated that he worked as an assistant professor and had no involvement in the offence.
He claimed that at a friend’s request, he had only provided a stability report via WhatsApp. He emphasised that this report was specifically for the statue’s platform or pedestal, not for the statue itself.
