Overview
- A 22-foot Bhuleshwar Ganesh idol collapsed during its arrival procession on Saturday, August 22, crushing two mandal officials identified as Sanket Nevshe and Brijesh Hemant Joshi and injuring five devotees.
- LT Marg police have registered two accidental death reports and recorded sculptor Aniket Desai’s statement as part of an active probe that views a broken welding joint on the idol’s rear support as the leading hypothesis.
- Investigators seized plaster of Paris samples for forensic testing after finding parts of the supporting frame had been repaired once earlier and that some PoP may have still been wet when the idol was moved.
- The five injured were taken to nearby hospitals and are reported stable, and the damaged idol was later broken up and immersed off Girgaon Chowpatty by civic teams.
- Lalbaugcha Raja and other mandals have offered financial aid to the Bhuleshwar mandal and the victims’ families and the BMC says it will inspect procession routes and road safety ahead of Ganeshotsav, a move that could prompt tighter checks on large-idol construction and transport.