The four Sambhaji Brigade youth were sent to police custody by a magistrate’s court
(Clockwise from top) An oil painting of the playwright was temporarily installed in place of the missing statue; the four suspects
Pune: Around 40 hours after it was chucked into the river by four vandals from the Sambhaji Brigade, the 54-year-old statue of famed playwright and homourist Ram Ganesh Gadkari, has finally been recovered. In the meantime, the arrested accused were produced in court and remanded to police custody.
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Five-hour search
Early on Tuesday at around 1.40 am, four members of the Brigade vandalised Gadkari’s statue located at the Sambhaji Park on the Jangli Maharaj Road, later taking credit for it on social media and announcing they would voluntarily surrender. However, based on the CCTV footage and the case registered by Pune Municipal Corporation’s garden superintendent, the four men — Pradeep Kanse (25), Ganesh Karale, Swapnil Kale (24) and Harshavardhan Mugdum (23) — were arrested.
The hunt for the missing statue was then kicked off on Wednesday morning at the Mutha river — as the CCTV footage from the site indicated they were headed in the direction of the Z bridge. Ajay Kadam, inspector in-charge of Deccan Gymkhana police station said, “The youth were escorted to the spot to confirm the location of the statue. After a five-hour search, the statue was finally found at around 3 pm.”
The day in court
Meanwhile, the four arrested were produced before a magistrate court and remanded to police custody till January 6. Additional security was also deployed there as several organisations had gathered there to protest or support the incident (The humourist in question was a controversial person as he had written plays and poems against Sambhaji Maharaj).
Assistant public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar strongly argued for police custody for 10 days claiming, “The incident is heinous and has created a law and order situation in the city. The master mind of such an act needed to be arrested but the police has still not seized the hammer and axe that was used to commit the crime.”
However, their defence lawyer Milind Pawar claimed that the youth had volunteered surrender before police and were ready to co-operate so they should be granted bail.
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