Nitesh Rane surrenders, sent in police custody in attempt to murder case

By PTI

MUMBAI: BJP MLA Nitesh Rane on Wednesday surrendered before a court in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra in an alleged attempt to murder case and was remanded in police custody till February 4, his lawyers said.

Nitesh, son of Union minister Narayan Rane, had withdrawn his bail plea from the Bombay High Court earlier in the day.

He subsequently surrendered before the Sindhudurg court, said special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat.

The prosecution then sought his police remand.

District and additional sessions judge (Sindhudurg) R B Rote had on Tuesday rejected Rane’s bail application, saying it was “premature and not maintainable”.

The court had also held that custodial interrogation of Nitesh Rane was necessary as probe into the attempt to murder case was “incomplete.”

The case pertains to an alleged attack on Shiv Sena activist Santosh Parab during the campaigning for the Sindhudurg District Co-operative Bank elections.

The BJP MLA had claimed that he was being targeted by the ruling Shiv Sena (which heads the MVA coalition government in Maharashtra) as it felt slighted by an incident of mocking outside the state legislature complex here last December.

It was political vendetta, he had alleged.

A Shiv Sena MLA had alleged that Nitesh Rane made ‘meow meow’ sound to mock minister and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on December 23 during the winter session.

Nitesh’s father Narayan Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader, is a bitter critic of his former party and its leader, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Earlier on Wednesday, the BJP MLA’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde told Justice C V Bhadang of the high court that he would like to withdraw the application seeking bail.

“The applicant intends to surrender and wants to join the investigation. This is despite the fact that the applicant still has five more days of protection from arrest granted to him by the Supreme Court on January 27,” Maneshinde said.

Justice Bhadang then allowed the withdrawal.

Nitesh Rane’s pre-arrest bail pleas had been rejected by both the lower court and the HC earlier.

The MLA then approached the supreme court, which on January 27 asked Maharashtra Police not to arrest him for ten days, and directed him to appear before the court in Sindhudurg and seek regular bail.