Statue of police horse Shaktimaan removed on advise of astrologer?

On Monday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat was scheduled to unveil the statue of Shaktimaan at the police lines, where it is buried, in Dehradun.

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand Government has removed the statue of Shaktimaan, a police horse that died in April following losing a leg in March 14 attack by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Ganesh Joshi, erected close to Vidhan Sabha Bhawan.

The 13-year-old animal had not responded to a prosthetic leg brought from the US and died on April 20, 2016. Celebrities and animal activists had mourned the death of the police horse.

On Monday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat was scheduled to unveil the statue of the police horse at the police lines, where it is buried, in Dehradun. However, he skipped the inaugural ceremony and left the venue soon after his visit.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the inauguration was cancelled at the last moment after an astrologer advised Rawat to maintain a distance from the horse.

Paying heed to the advice, Rawat had refused to attend the ceremony.

Hindustan Times has quoted BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi as saying that the statue of the horse was removed on behest of Rawat as astrologers have advised him to do so.

Notably, the Uttarakhand chief minister had to face the public ire on Twitter for constructing Shaktimaan’s statue and not paying similar honour to soldiers and police officials from the state who had given up their lives in service of the nation.