Nitesh Rane sent to police custody in attempt to murder case

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Nitesh Rane was on Wednesday sent to the custody of Sindhudurg police till Friday in an attempt to murder case filed against him and others.

Nitesh, son of Union Minister Narayan Rane, formally surrendered before the Sindhudurg court on Wednesday, which initially sent him to 14-day judicial custody. The police then approached the court seeking his custody for further probe in the case. The court granted the police Nitesh’s custody till February 4.

Special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat said Nitesh’s custody was sought before the court as the investigation in the case is underway. Gharat submitted before the court that the custodial interrogation is required not only for recovery of evidence, including mobile phones and a vanity van where the alleged conspiracy took place, but also for confrontation with other arrested co-accused. He also submitted that Nitesh’s custodial interrogation would reveal the chain of events leading up to the alleged offence. The police sought Nitesh’s custody for 10 days.

The case lodged in the Kankavli police station is in connection to an incident in which Shiv Sena member Santosh Parab claimed that an Innova car without a number plate had hit his bike on December 18, 2021. The complainant further claimed that he was assaulted by the occupants of the car and that he had heard one of them tell the other that he “should inform Gotya Sawant and Nitesh Rane”.

Last month, Nitesh’s anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Sindhudurg sessions court following which he filed an appeal before the Bombay High Court. The HC also rejected his plea. Nitesh then approached the Supreme Court which said that while it did not want to interfere with the HC order, he could approach the Sindhudurg court for regular bail after surrendering before it. Nitesh appeared before the sessions court on Tuesday and sought regular bail which the court rejected stating that his plea is premature since he has not formally surrendered. Nitesh then approached the Bombay High Court.

On Wednesday, the legislator withdrew his plea filed before the HC and said that he would surrender before the police.

“In view of what happened yesterday in the Sindhudurg court, the bail applicant intends to surrender before the investigating officer during the course of the day and his bail plea be allowed to be withdrawn. He intends to surrender to face the probe even though five-day protection is still left as per the Supreme Court order,” advocate Satish Maneshinde, appearing for Nitesh, told a bench of Justice C V Bhadang. The judge then disposed of the MLA’s bail application.

On January 27, the Supreme Court had granted Nitesh 10 days’ protection from arrest and asked him to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail.

Earlier, on January 17, the high court had refused pre-arrest bail to the MLA and his co-accused Sandesh alias Gotya Sawant but granted the relief to another accused in the case, Manish Dalvi.

After Nitesh’s counsel sought a two-week stay on its order to approach the top court for bail, the high court, as “a last chance”, extended the police’s assurance that they would not take any coercive action till January 27.