Quite disappointing
From ‘stolen’ to ‘not stolen:’ Meerut officials’ U-turn on Neeraj Chopra statue javelin
When the word about a javelin being allegedly stolen or broken from the recently installed statue of world champion and Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra spread on Monday morning, the police and civil administration in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut were on their toes to trace the suspects or at least the missing part.
Police teams were formed to trace the “culprits” in no time and Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohit Singh Sajwan was quoted as saying, “We are going through all the available CCTV footage in the area to track down the culprits and are hopeful of identifying them soon.”
When contacted earlier in the day, MDA vice-chairman Abhishek Pandey said, “As of now, I am not aware of the incident. But if it is true, then the MDA will re-install the missing javelin on the statue.”
No FIR was registered in this connection. But as the day progressed, the MDA did a U-turn and claimed in a press conference in the evening that it was they who removed the javelin only to replace it later.
MDA junior engineer (engineering section) Pawan Bhardwaj said, “Some people had objected to the javelin being made of plastic. This is why we got it removed on Sunday night. Now it has been replaced by an iron javelin. It was neither stolen nor broken.”
Anuj Singhal, president of the Surajkund Sports Vyapar Sangh said, “If the javelin was stolen, it is a shame on us as Meerut is known for producing and exporting quality sports goods across the world. We have seen a record rise in the sale of javelin since Neeraj Chopra earned laurels for the country in the international arena.”
Lokesh Khurana, a social activist who was among the first to spot the missing part Monday morning, demanded an inquiry into the matter. “The part is either broken or stolen. If this is stolen, efforts should be made to trace it and an inquiry should be ordered to fix the responsibility if it is broken,” said Khurana.
The MDA installed Chopra’s statue on August 29 at the Hapur Adda crossing in honour of the Tokyo gold medalist and the champion at the world athletics event held in Budapest recently. The statue is made of fibre and other materials and is coated with golden paint.
The intersection also has statues of other Olympians.
– 2023-09-05 15:55