Maha BJP MLA Nitesh Rane surrenders, sent to 2 days police custody

Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Feb 2 (IANS) BJP Maharashtra MLA Nitesh Rane, the son of Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, on Wednesday surrendered before a court in the state's Sindhudurg, in an attempt to murder case, and was sent to police custody.

The development came hours after his lawyer Satish Maneshinde said that Nitesh Rane had withdrawn his bail application before the Bombay High Court with a statement that he would give himself up to the Sindhudurg police.

"The bail application is withdrawn with a statement that the applicant (Nitesh) Rane is surrendering before the Investigating Officer (IO), even though 5 more days of protection by the Supreme Court are left, as he wants to face the investigation," Maneshinde added.

Soon afterwards, Rane left his home in Kankavali, to surrender before the Sindhudurg court and took the opportunity to slam the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for allegedly trying to arrest him illegally.

Rane's surrender came - amid tight security - after Sindhudurg's Additional Sessions Judge R.M. Rote on Tuesday rejected his bail application citing various grounds and said his custodial interrogation was necessary.

Observing that Rane was not "falsely implicated due to political reasons", Rote said the he is the "main accused" and his prima facie involvement has been shown, a conspiracy was hatched to teach complainant Santosh M. Parab a lesson, and hence his "custodial interrogation" was necessary for proper and effective investigation.

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

According to Parab's police complaint, when he was returning home that evening, his motorcyle was hit by a SUV without number plates, one person stepped out and assaulted him with a paperknife.

Later, the assailant allegedly was overheard saying that Gotya Sawant and Nitesh Rane should be informed of the incident, called up someone, and sped off in the SUV.

Police subsequently arrested the 6 accused - Chetan Pawar, Karan B. Kamble, Anil Nakka, Karan D. Kamble, Deepak N. Waghode, and Sachin Satpute - all from Pune, while two other accused Dnyaneshwar D. Devnur and Dheeraj Jadhav are still absconding.

As per the probe, Karan B. Kamble revealed the weapons claimed to have been used in the offence which were recovered and the attack was commissioned by Devnur and Jadhav for Rs 150,000 of which they were paid Rs 20,000.

The probe revealed that Satpute and Nitesh Rane had allegedly hatched the conspiracy on August 28 last year with the latter wanting to teach Parab a lesson for targeting the Rane family.