KOLHAPUR: Structural engineer Chetan Patil, one of the two persons named in the FIR in connection with the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue at Rajkot fort, Malvan, surrendered before the Kolhapur police at 12.30 am on Friday.
He approached the police through a friend and expressed his wish to surrender. “We had sent teams to look for him.We questioned his family members, relatives and friends. A Malvan police team was in Kolhapur since the FIR was lodged. We handed over the accused to the team immediately,” superintendent of Kolhapur police Mahendra Pandit said.
Patil is from Shivaji Peth in Kolhapur city and was staying at Chikodi in the Belagavi district of Karnataka. The Kolhapur police said that after a medical check-up, Patil was taken to Malvan where he was arrested early in the morning. He and sculptor Jaydeep Apte were booked under Section 109 (attempt to murder), 110, 125, 318, and 3(5) of the BNS.
Inspector Ashok Kolhe of the Malvan police told TOI, “We have not yet produced the accused before the court. The arrest process has been completed. We have deployed police teams to search for the statue sculptor, who is still absconding.”
Chetan Patil is a professor in a private engineering college. As a structural engineer, he was given the task to prepare the project design.
On Thursday, the local crime branch team of Sindhudurg police had interrogated the wife of absconding accused sculptor Jaydeep Apte in the case of the collapse. The team tried to get information about her husband.
The team later recovered CCTV footage of the building where Apte resides, police officers said.
Apte left home and has been in hiding ever since a case was registered against him and the architect in this case.
The collapse has sparked a major political controversy with the opposition MVA targeting Mahayuti govt and the Mahayuti accusing MVA of politicizing the matter.
He approached the police through a friend and expressed his wish to surrender. “We had sent teams to look for him.We questioned his family members, relatives and friends. A Malvan police team was in Kolhapur since the FIR was lodged. We handed over the accused to the team immediately,” superintendent of Kolhapur police Mahendra Pandit said.
Patil is from Shivaji Peth in Kolhapur city and was staying at Chikodi in the Belagavi district of Karnataka. The Kolhapur police said that after a medical check-up, Patil was taken to Malvan where he was arrested early in the morning. He and sculptor Jaydeep Apte were booked under Section 109 (attempt to murder), 110, 125, 318, and 3(5) of the BNS.
Inspector Ashok Kolhe of the Malvan police told TOI, “We have not yet produced the accused before the court. The arrest process has been completed. We have deployed police teams to search for the statue sculptor, who is still absconding.”
Chetan Patil is a professor in a private engineering college. As a structural engineer, he was given the task to prepare the project design.
On Thursday, the local crime branch team of Sindhudurg police had interrogated the wife of absconding accused sculptor Jaydeep Apte in the case of the collapse. The team tried to get information about her husband.
The team later recovered CCTV footage of the building where Apte resides, police officers said.
Apte left home and has been in hiding ever since a case was registered against him and the architect in this case.
The collapse has sparked a major political controversy with the opposition MVA targeting Mahayuti govt and the Mahayuti accusing MVA of politicizing the matter.