Vandals belonging to Sambhaji Brigade dump 54-year-old Gadkari statue in river

Pune tense after Sambhaji Brigade takes matter in own hands after they claimed complaints of poet and playwright Ram Ganesh Gadkari having called Sambhaji Maharaj an alcoholic and womaniser fell on deaf ears

The statue was first installed at Sambhaji Park in 1962

Pune: Members of the Sambhaji Brigade vandalised a 54-year-old statue of playwright and humourist Ram Ganesh Gadkari (1885-1919), located at the Sambhaji Park in the Deccan Gymkhana area, early today morning. They later threw the statue into a river. The members said that they were forced to act after their pleas to remove the statue fell on deaf ears.

According to the Sambhaji Brigade, the youth wing of the Maratha Seva Sangh, the 20th century poet had defamed Maratha rule Sambhaji Maharaj in one of his 20th century plays. Placing Gadkari’s statue inside the Sambhaji Park was only insult to injury, the members claimed. “Gadkari had said that Maharaj was an alcoholic and womaniser. But, he is one of the few kings to have fought over 150 battles. He was also a literature lover and had written four books, but that had never been written about in the play,” said Santosh Shinde, head of Pune district of Sambhaji Brigade.

“For the last seven years, we have been requesting the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the former Congress government to remove the statue from the park. But, nobody paid heed,” he added.

The statue was first installed at Sambhaji Park in 1962 at the hands of noted Marathi writer PrahlÄÂu00c2u0081d Keshav Atre.

The members had first posted about destroying the statue on Facebook around 8 am this morning. They said that four members, Pradip Kanse, Harshavardhan Mugdam, Swapnil Kale and Ganesh Karale, had vandalized the statue and that they would be voluntary surrendering before the police around 11 am.

“The incident took place around 2 am. We are investigating the case and will arrest the culprits after analysing the CCTV footage,” said Ajay Kadam, senior inspector of Deccan Gymkhana police station.

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