Sculptor of Udupi’s Parashurama statue that ‘vanished’ within a year arrested

After parts of the 33-ft statue said to have been made in bronze disappeared from the Parashurama Theme Park at Bailoor, the Karkala Town police registered an FIR on a complaint lodged by Krishna Shetty of Nallur in June.

While Krishna Naik approached the Karnataka High Court against the case booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code, a bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna refused to quash the FIR on October 21, observing that taxpayer money of over Rs 1 crore had been spent and that there were issues in the installation of the statue.

The total cost of the theme park was around Rs 11.05 crore and Rs 7 crore was already spent, including on the statue.

A district administration official told indianexpress.com later that the statue was inaugurated in a hurry as the model code of conduct for the Assembly elections was to take effect soon, adding that the structure had to be eventually removed part by part.

Another official then said the sculptor had removed parts with official consent as they required modifications but that the parts had yet to be returned.

The project was initiated by the departments of tourism and Kannada and culture, among others. V Sunil Kumar, MLA for Karkala, was the minister for Kannada and culture in the then BJP government.