Playwright's vandalised bust recovered from river

Police today recovered the bust of noted Marathi playwright and humourist Ram Ganesh Gadkari from the Mutha river after being uprooted from the Sambhaji Garden here.
"On the information given by the four persons (arrested in the case), we recovered the bust from the Mutha river, along the Sambhaji Garden," a police officer, attached to Deccan Gymkhana police station, said.
He said the police is yet to find the equipments used to vandalise the bust.
Meanwhile, the four accused-- Pradip Kanase (25), Harshvardhan Magdum (23), Swapnil Kale (24) and Ganesh Karale (26)-- who were arrested after the incident, were produced in a court here and remanded to police custody till January 6.

The bust was knocked out and taken away in wee hours yesterday following which the four were arrested under relevant sections of the Damage to Public Property Act and IPC, police said.
Sambhaji Brigade, a pro-Maratha group had claimed responsibility for the act, saying it was done in retaliation to the "poor portrayal" of Shivaji Maharaj's son Sambhaji in a play written by the 20th century litterateur.

The incident sparked protests from political as well as cultural quarters even as pro-Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade boasted of the act, saying, in his work 'Raj Sanyas', Gadkari had portrayed Sambhaji in poor light.

Sambhaji Brigade had said that after removing the bust from the garden, maintained by the civic body, their workers dumped it into a river.
The Pune Municipal Corporation had ordered an inquiry into the incident following which four persons were arrested.
The bust of Gadkari, considered as one of the great writers in Marathi, was installed at the main gate of the garden in 1962.
The unfinished play, 'Raj Sanyas', portrays the emotional struggle and relation between Shivaji Maharaj and Sambhaji.