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On Tuesday, the Maharashtra police has assured the Bombay High Court that it will not take coercive action against BJP MLA Nitesh Rane till January 7 in an alleged attempt to murder case in connection with an attack on one Santosh Parab, in December 2002.

The Single Bench of Justice CV Bhadang, while asking the police to file its reply and produce case diary, kept Nitesh’s pre-arrest bail plea for hearing on January 7.

Nitesh, son of union minister Narayan Rane, who represents the Kankavali Assembly seat in Sindhudurg district, had approached the High Court after the sessions court at Sindhudurg rejected his plea on December 30, 2021.

Special public prosecutor Sudeep Pasbola, appearing for the State government, contended that the preliminary probe has revealed that Rane was the mastermind in the case and that he was evading interrogation.

He further sought two days’ time to file an affidavit following which Nitesh’s advocate Niteen Pradhan sought interim protection from arrest.

Next while giving oral assurance to the Court, Pasbola said that the police would not take coercive action against Nitesh.

“He (Nitesh) is being prosecuted only for humiliation. He appeared before the concerned police station on December 24, 2021, and his statement was recorded. Later, he was intimated that he might be arrested following which he sought pre-arrest bail,” argued Pradhan.

To this, Pasbola replied that when Nitesh was questioned on December 24, the police had just begun its probe, 

"On December 26, one of his (Nitesh’s) associates was arrested who revealed his role in the case. Our investigation has revealed that he (Nitesh) is the mastermind in the case.”

Pradhan argued, that Nitesh was being “falsely implicated” with the intention to “disgrace him in public” by arresting.

He further stated that, it is a perfect example of “vindictive misuse of political power” in order to settle score in respect of recent incident of catcalling outside Vidhan Bhavan and the hotly contested elections in the Zilla Madhyavarti Sahakari Bank Elections, in which the BJP won against the ruling political party.

“The present government, it seems, finds the political retorts difficult to humour and is using its political power to unleash vendetta by trying to falsely rope in the applicants for an offence which they have not committed,” stated the plea.

The FIR was registered at Kankavali police station after local Shiv Sena activist Santosh Parab was attacked during the campaign for the Sindhudurg District Central Cooperative Bank election on December 18, 2021.

 

[With inputs from FPJ]