The world’s tallest statue, the ‘Statue of Unity’ was put up ‘for sale’ on OLX by an anonymous person in Gujarat. He listed this on sale to meet the government’s operating cost for hospitals and other health infrastructure to fight the coronavirus epidemic. The original advertisement was however taken down by the OLX later.
The Sardar Patel, 182 meters memorial statue has attracted several lakh tourists since it was inaugurated on the 143rd birth anniversary of Patel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 31 October 2018. On 5th April, a case was filed against an unknown person, who tried to sell the Statue of Unity for Rs 30,000 crore to meet the government’s expenses for hospitals and medical infrastructure to fight the epidemic. The description of the advertisement read, ‘Emergency! Selling Statue of Unity because of the urgent money required for the hospitals and healthcare equipment.’
Quoting the FIR against the case a Kevadiya police station official said- “Some unknown person placed an advertisement on OLX on Saturday stating he needs to sell the Statue of Unity for Rs 30,000 crore to meet the requirement of money to buy hospitals and healthcare equipment”.
“The memorial’s authorities came to know of the issue after a newspaper ran an article, and approached the police. A cheating and forgery case was registered under IPC, Epidemic Diseases Act and Information Technology Act,” Inspector PT Chaudhary said.
FIR lodged against unknown person in Gujarat for putting out online advertisement to "sell" Statue of Unity for Rs 30,000 crore to "meet" government's "requirement for money" for hospitals and medical infrastructure to fight #COVID19: Police
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 5, 2020
The chief administrator of the Statue of Unity stated a release in which he mentioned that- “Despite him not being authorized to sell government property, this unidentified person posted the advertisement on OLX to defame the government and mislead people”. “Such an advertisement hurts the sentiments of the several crore people who idolize Sardar Patel”, it added.
Cover Image: Reuters