Nitesh Rane, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Indian National Congress (INC,) on the 4th of July, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a government official.
Prakash Shedekar, a highway engineer working with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI,) filed a complaint with the Kudal Police Station against Nitesh Rane and his supporters. He said, Nitesh and his supporters, who were concerned about the bad condition of the Mumbai-Goa Highway, allegedly poured buckets of mud on him and assaulted him.
Later, the case was transferred to Kankavali Police Station, which registered the case and took the necessary action against Nitesh Rane all the 16 accused.
Dikshit Gedam, the Superintendent of Police of Sindhudurg, said, “We have arrested Nitesh Rane and his 16 supporters who were involved in the incident. They have been booked for assault on government servant, obstructing government servant from discharging his duties, criminal intimidation, conspiracy and common intention, threatening , wrongful restraint under sections 353, 332, 342, 324, 323, 143, 148, 149, 147, 120-B, 504, 506 IPC and section 3 of Damage to Public Property Act. The accused will be produced in court on Friday.”
A video of the incident, in which Nitesh was seen assaulting Prakash, went viral on various social media platforms. Nitesh, later in the video, was found ordering his supporters to pour mud on Prakash. In the video, the supporters of Nitesh also tried to tie the engineer to the bridge.
Deepak Kesarkar, the Home Minister of Maharashtra, condemned the act of Nitesh and said, “Whoever it is, who does such an act will face action. Not only this time, he did the same thing thrice earlier, when we take this matter to court we will bring up all these previous incidents. We will request court to fast track the matter.” He further said, “There are two cases pending against him. If he is punished no one will dare to do such act. This goondaism has been going from This father’s days. People were Not even allowed to fill petrol without their permission. People only ended this through ballot box (sic.)”
On the other hand, Narayan Rane, the father of Nitesh Rane, apologised on behalf of his son and condemned his actions. He said, “I apologise for my son’s act of pouring mud on a government official. The protest was for the local people.”
Nitesh Rane and the others accused in the case will be produced in a Maharashtra Court on the 5th of July.
Stay tuned for further updates.