The Supreme Court has granted interim protection from arrest for ten days to BJP sitting MLA Nitesh Narayan Rane, son of Union Minister Narayan Rane accused in FIR under Section 307 (Attempt to Murder), 120 B (Criminal Conspiracy) r/w Section 34 (Common Intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The Court has disposed of the SLP, with a direction to appear before the concerned court and apply for regular bail. Rane is a sitting MLA from Kankavali Constituency, State of Maharashtra.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Rane and argued, “this is completely cooked up case on the eve of election of a Cooperative bank. I want to show how bogus this case is…”
In case of a simple injury, I was implicated in a case of Attempt of Murder. He has also made wrong statement. There are only 5 cases against me and all are political agitated cases. I went to Police station on 24,25,26. It was all conspiracy as I was a two time MLA, said Rohatgi rebutting to the submissions made by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who vehemently opposed the bail application on behalf of the State Govt.
Singhvi said, there are actually 12 cases against him (Nitesh Rane) and not all are politically agitated case. All the accused are from Pune. He hatched a conspiracy with A-6 (Satpute) loyal continued associate against the Complainant.
A bench led by CJI NV Ramana has ordered, the SLP is disposed off with a direction to appear before the concerned court and apply for regular bail. Interim protection for 10 days. Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli were also part of the bench.
On Tuesday, former AG Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared on behalf of the applicant and sought urgent listing of the matter before the bench led by CJI NV Ramana. Rohatgi said he has been falsely implicated in the case and its a clear case of political rivalry.
The Bombay High Court this month on Jan 17, had dismissed the anticipatory bail application filed by MLA Nitesh Narayan Rane and Co accused Manish Prakash Dalvi who is a elected Director & the Chairman of Sindhudurga District Central Cooperative Bank.
MLA Nitesh Narayan Rane moved the Supreme Court against the cancellation of Anticipatory Bail by the Bombay High Court. In his plea before the Bombay High Court, Rane argued that on 23rd December, 2021, there was an incident of ‘catcall lampooning’, during a protest by the opposition outside Assembly during the Assembly session involving him, which did not go well with Shiv Sena, the ruling coalition Party in the State. Secondly, in his plea he alleged that election to the Sindhudurga District Central Cooperative Bank to be held on 30th December, 2021 in which the applicant Manish Dalvi was a contesting candidate and he was the campaigner in the said election for Manish Dalvi and against the rival candidates of the ruling coalition parties in the State. Broadly these are the two reasons according to Rane for his false implication, in the case apart from General political rivalry. The Maharashtra Police has registered FIR on the basis of the complaint lodged by Santosh Manohar Parab resident of Kankavali, who is contractor by profession and member of the ruling Coalition party in the State.
Senior counsel Niteen Pradhan appeared for Rane before the Bombay High Court had argued that the whole case is a “reaction to a cat-call lampooning’’ in December 2021 by Nitesh Rane when the BJP leaders were protesting outside Vidhan Sabha.