Mangaluru: In the recently held by-election for the Dakshina Kannada Local Authorities Legislative Council seat, BJP candidate Kishore Kumar Botyadi emerged victorious. The by-election was conducted on October 21 following the resignation of Kota Srinivas Poojary.

The vote counting took place today (October 24), where Kishore Kumar Botyadi defeated Congress candidate Raju Poojary by a margin of 1,697 votes.

Out of the 5,912 votes cast, Kishore Kumar Botyadi secured 3,654 votes for the BJP, while Raju Poojary received 1,957 votes for the Congress. Anwar Sadat of the SDPI obtained 195 votes, with 9 other votes cast, and 87 votes declared invalid.

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Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to consultant Chetan Patil arrested in connection with the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj''s statue at Rajkot fort in Malvan in August.

A 35-foot statue of the iconic Maratha warrior king collapsed in Sindhudurg district on August 26, nearly nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on Navy Day.

Patil was arrested on August 30 from Kolhapur.

A single bench of Justice A S Kilor on Thursday held that no case was made out to implicate Patil in the case as he had not been appointed as the structural designer of the statue.

The bench further said Patil had only submitted a structural stability report of the pedestal of the statue and the pedestal was intact even after the collapse.

Another accused, Jaydeep Apte, who was the sculptor and contractor, was also arrested in the case. The HC said it would hear his bail plea on November 25.

The Sindhudurg police had registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for negligence and other offences last month against Apte and Patil for the statue's collapse.

Patil and Apte moved HC seeking bail after a sessions court rejected their pleas.