Mumbai: BJP leader Nitesh Rane, a minister in Devendra Fadnavis’ cabinet in Maharashtra, has been sentenced to one month in jail in connection to a 2019 case.
Rane, accused of pouring mud on a National Highways Authority in India (NHAI) engineer when he was in the Opposition, was convicted by a court in Sindhudurg. While pronouncing the quantum of punishment, the judge noted that lawmakers are not supposed to take the law into their hands.
The court later suspended Rane’s sentence, allowing him time to appeal before a higher court, while acquitting 29 other accused in the case.
“Even though Rane’s intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work and inconvenience faced by the people, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public,”
additional sessions court judge V S Deshmukh said.
“If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity,” the judge added.
The court viewed the act as an “abuse of power”, and held that “it is the demand of time to curb such tendency.”
Rane, son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, was a Congress MLA when the incident occurred.
He was among 30 people charged under various offences, including rioting, assault to deter a public servant and criminal conspiracy.
Though all accused were acquitted of these charges because the court didn’t find sufficient evidence to support most of these claims, Rane was found guilty of an offence under section 504 (intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of public peace).
According to the prosecution, Rane had called NHAI sub-divisional engineer Prakash Shedekar to a bridge over Gad river in Kankavli on July 4, 2019, for inspection of work to widen the Mumbai-Goa Highway.
Frustrated by the poor quality of the roadwork and waterlogging, Rane and his followers confronted the engineer, and poured muddy water on Shedekar, forcing him to walk through slush in public.