Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to Jaydeep Apte, 39, the sculptor who made Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s 28-feet statue in Malvan, which collapsed in August last year. Justice NR Borkar granted him bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000.

Apte has sought bail claiming that the bronze statue fell because of the gusty winds. Apte approached the HC, through advocate Ganesh Sovani, after the sessions court at Oros rejected his bail plea on October 1.

On August 26, 2024, the statue erected at Rajkot Fort in Malvan collapsed. The statue was inaugurated on December 4, 2023, by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. The 28-feet statue was erected on a 12-feet pedestal at the cost of Rs 2.44 crore. Apte received his Diploma in Sculpting and Modelling in 2010 from JJ School of Arts.

Apte's advocate Ganesh Sovani submitted that no one was injured over the falling of the statue, hence at the most it could be a case of negligence. Hence further custody was not required, Sovani argued.

An FIR was lodged by officers of the Public Works Department (PWD) with the local police under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. Apte surrendered before the police and was sent to judicial custody.

Apte, proprietor of M/s Artistry, said he made the bronze statue on the basis of the work order issued on September 8, 2023 by the Naval Dockyard. His plea contended that the Naval Dockyard authority never complained of any artistic deficiency or shortcomings. Also, the FIR was registered within nine hours of the falling of the status by officers of the PWD, who have no technical expertise in metallurgy.

“Precautionary measures could have been taken keeping in mind that the statue will last for several centuries and that too in good state,” the plea read.

His plea added that Dr Chetan Patil, who was also arrested, was entrusted with the construction of pedestal, erection and stability analysis. During inspection on August 20, PWD officers found that the nuts and bolts used to fix the status on the pedestal were rusted.

Patil was granted bail by the HC on November 21, 2024, observing that no case was made out to implicate Patil in the case as he had not been appointed as the structural designer of the statue. Patil had only submitted a structural stability report of the pedestal of the statue and the pedestal was intact even after the collapse.