In a rather intriguing incident, an advertisement on OLX on Saturday stated that a person wanted to “sell” the Statue of Unity in Kevadiya in Narmada district for Rs 30,000 crore to meet the government’s expenses for hospitals and medical infrastructure to fight the Coronavirus outbreak.

A case has been filed against the unknown person in Gujarat for placing the online advertisement.

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“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 make hospitals and buy healthcare equipment,” a police officer said, quoting the First Information Report (FIR).

“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 filed under the IPC (Indian Penal Code), Epidemic Diseases Act, and Information Technology Act,” police officer PT Chaudhary said.

Soon after it was posted, the advertisement was taken off the website.

“Despite not being authorised to sell government property, this unidentified person posted the advertisement on OLX to defame the government and mislead people,” said a statement by the chief administrator of the Statue of Unity.

Such an advertisement hurts the sentiments of several crore people who idolise Sardar Patel, it added.

Deputy Commissioner Nilesh Dubey said that the OLX had published the ad without verification.

The 182-metre statue, touted to be the tallest statue in the world, is a tribute to Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel, independent India’s first home minister as well as deputy Prime Minister. Patel, who was prominently known as the ‘Iron Man of India’, was responsible for the integration of several princely states into modern India.

It was was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2018 at Kevadia in the Narmada district of Gujarat on the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.

The 597-feet tall Statue of Unity has been featured by the Time magazine in its second annual list of 2019 World’s 100 greatest places along with Mumbai’s Soho House.

The Statue of Unity was built at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,989 crore.

The statue has been designed by Padma Bhushan-winning sculptor Ram V Sutar and has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 labourers to construct the statue in 33 months.