Maharashtra: Nitesh Rane withdraws bail plea in attempt to murder case

MLA still has five more days of protection from arrest granted by SC

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R Maharashtra BJP MLA Nitesh Rane on Wednesday withdrew his bail plea filed in the Bombay High Court as he intends to surrender before police and join the investigation in an attempt to murder case in which he is an accused.

Nitesh Rane, who is the son of Union Minister Narayan Rane, had filed the plea in HC on Tuesday after a sessions court in Sindhudurg district denied him bail in the case while noting that his custodial interrogation was required.

On Wednesday, the MLA's advocate Satish Maneshinde told a single bench of Justice C.V. Bhadang that the applicant (Nitesh) would like to withdraw the application seeking bail.

“The applicant intends to surrender and wants to join the investigation. This is despite the fact that the applicant still has five more days of protection from arrest granted to him by the Supreme Court on January 27,” Maneshinde said.

Justice Bhadang accepted the statement and allowed for the bail application to be withdrawn.

The case pertains to the alleged attack on a Shiv Sena activist Santosh Parab during the campaigning for the Sindhudurg District Cooperative Bank elections in December 2021.

Nitesh Rane's pre-arrest bail pleas were earlier rejected by both the lower court and HC. The MLA had then approached the Supreme Court, which on January 27 asked the Maharashtra Police not to arrest him for 10 days, and directed him to appear before the court concerned in Sindhudurg and seek regular bail.

On Tuesday, the legislator filed a bail plea before the sessions court in Sindhudurg. The court, however, rejected the application, noting that it was premature and custodial interrogation was required in the case.

Nitesh Rane had claimed he was falsely implicated in the case, and that it was a “classic case of political vendetta or rivalry at the behest of the ruling dispensation”. He had also said that he was being targeted by Maharashtra's ruling party (Shiv Sena, which heads the MVA government) as it felt insulted and hurt by an alleged incident of mocking outside the state legislature complex last month.

A Shiv Sena MLA had alleged that Nitesh Rane had made meow, meow sounds looking in the direction of Maharashtra minister and Sena legislator Aaditya Thackeray while he was going inside the Vidhan Bhavan building in Mumbai on December 23, 2021, during the winter session of the legislature.