Kolhapur:A group of unknown people erected a statue of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj overnight in a vacant space near the National Highway, in front of the bus stand in Mohol town of Solapur district, the police said on Sunday.The police said the land belongs to the National Highway Authority of India, and the statue has been erected without permission. They also said that, as per NHAI’s earlier communication, no statue could be built near national highways due to security concerns, as accidents along highways could pose danger to the statue.
On Sunday morning, after the police found that the statue had been erected, they barricaded the place and heavy police security was deployed. The police said they planned to remove the statue, but followers of Sambhaji Maharaj warned the authorities not to touch it, and instead asked the police to obtain relevant permissions from the relevant departments for the statue.“We are in the process of registering a case against the unknown people for erecting the statue without permission. The NHAI officials are going to file the complaint. We are going to speak to the organisations concerned and get the statue removed amicably,” said a senior Solapur cop requesting anonymity.The followers also said it has been a long-pending demand to erect a statue of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in Mohol, but it has been ignored over the years.Ramesh Baraskar, a local Shiv Sena functionary, said, “We are going to discuss the issue in the Mohol Nagar Parishad and make an appropriate place available to erect the statue.”
