Congress MLA Nitesh Rane and his 16 supporters were arrested on Thursday, 4 July, for attacking a deputy engineer with mud at a bridge near the Mumbai-Goa highway in Maharashtra’s Kankavali.
In a video that surfaced earlier in the day, Nitesh Rane – the son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane – can be seen pushing the deputy engineer, Prakash Shedekar of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), while the MLA’s supporters surround him and throw two buckets of mud at him.
Nitesh Rane, the MLA from Kankavali, and his supporters were protesting after finding potholes and mud on the busy Mumbai-Goa highway that passes through the coastal district.
In the video clip that went viral on social media, junior Rane and his supporters, including Kankavli Municipal Council president Samir Nalawade, were seen tying Shedekar to the railing of a bridge and pouring buckets of mud on him.
"Every day the locals have to face such mud from the passing vehicles...you also experience it," Nitesh Rane and Nalawade were heard saying to Shedekar.
The MLA and his supporters were booked under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 342 (wrongful confinement and 120B (criminal conspiracy), an official cited by PTI said.
A section of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act was also slapped on them.
‘Behaviour Is Wrong’
Reacting to the incident, Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane told ANI:
“This behaviour is wrong. The protest over the highway issue is correct but this violence by his supporters is not correct. I don’t support this.”Narayan Rane
Narayan Rane further said that his son “will have to apologise” for his conduct.
“Why won’t I ask him to apologise? He is my son. If a father can apologise for no fault of his, the son will have to apologise,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Nitesh Rane is an MLA from the Kankavli Assembly constituency in Maharashtra. His father, Narayan Rane, had left the Congress in 2017 and gone on to form the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha. The senior Rane was elected to the Rajya Sabha with BJP support. Nitesh Rane is the founder of Swabhiman Sangathana, which is attached to his father’s grouping.
Comes After Akash Vijayvargiya Attacked Civil Official
The incident comes close on the heels of an attack by BJP lawmaker Akash Vijayvargiya, the son of senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, on a civic official in Indore on 26 June.
Akash Vijayvargiya, who was later arrested and spent four days in jail before getting bail, attacked the official with a cricket bat over demolition of a dilapidated building.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly disapproved of Akash Vijayvargiya's misconduct and told party leaders that arrogance and misbehaviour cannot be tolerated.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)
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