Maharashtra BJP MLA Nitesh Rane to Surrender Before Police

Speaking from his home in Kankavali, Nitesh Rane said that he was going to surrender before the court shortly.

File photo of Nitesh Rane

(Photo: PTI)

In a major climbdown, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Nitesh Rane, son of Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, will surrender before the Maharashtra Police, his lawyers said here on Wednesday, 2 February.

Advocate Satish Maneshinde said that Nitesh Rane's bail application before the Bombay High Court has been withdrawn with a statement that he would give himself up to the Sindhudurg Police.

Speaking from his home in Kankavali, Sindhudurg, Nitesh Rane said that he was going to surrender before the court shortly.

"The bail application is withdrawn with a statement that the applicant (Nitesh) Rane is surrendering before the Investigating Officer (IO), even though five more days of protection by the Supreme Court are left, as he wants to face the investigation."

Maneshinde

The development came a day after Sindhudurg Court Additional Sessions Judge R M Rote rejected Nitesh Rane's bail application citing various grounds and said his custodial interrogation was necessary.

Nitesh Rane reacted by posting a picture of how Amit Shah was arrested by the CBI in 2010 when P Chidambaram was the Union home minister, and in 2019 the CBI arrested Chidambaram when Shah is (currently) the Union Home Minister. He had captioned it as: "Time is Powerful, Humans are unnecessarily arrogant."

Rane Jr is charged for the alleged 18 December 2021 attack on a Shiv Sena activist Santosh M Parab while campaigning for the Sindhudurg District Cooperative Bank polls on 31 December, though the BJP leader has consistently denied any involvement.

(Edited for language.)