State continues statement of no coercive action against Nitesh Rane

The state government on Wednesday continued its statement that no coercive steps would be taken against MLA Nitesh Rane till his anticipatory bail application was decided by the Bombay HC

Mumbai The state government on Wednesday continued its statement that no coercive steps would be taken against MLA Nitesh Rane till his anticipatory bail application was decided by the Bombay high court (HC).

While arguing for Nitesh Rane, the HC was informed that the FIR was an act of vendetta for the cat calls made by him against Sena leader and minister Aditya Thackeray outside Vidhan Bhavan (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

While arguing for Rane, the HC was informed that the FIR was an act of vendetta for the cat calls made by him against Sena leader and minister Aditya Thackeray outside Vidhan Bhavan on December 23 and to ensure that he did not participate in the elections of a bank.

Rane’s counsel also argued that the mere statement of the victim of the attempt to murder case could not be relied upon to implicate Rane in the absence of any incriminating evidence. The court will continue hearing of the ABA on Thursday.

When the petition came up for hearing before a single judge bench of HC on Wednesday, advocate Niteen Pradhan for Rane submitted that he had cooperated in the investigation and had attended the police station on December 24 wherein his statement was taken down after four hours of interrogation after which he was allowed to go.

Parab told the police that while he was on his bike on the Kankavli Nardave road at around 11 am, an Innova car without a number plate hit his vehicle. A person alighted from the car and told Parab that since he (Parab) worked for Satish Sawant (a Sena leader), the assailant would ‘deal with him and stabbed Parab in the chest’. The complaint stated that Parab heard the assailant tell another occupant in the car to inform Nitesh Rane and another accused of the incident before fleeing the spot.

Pradhan further submitted that as per the FIR, Parab received one blow and suffered two abrasions on the chest but there was no explanation as to how he received the injury and hence invoking section 307 (attempt to murder) charges against Rane was preposterous. He added that the allegations in the FIR were a conspiracy to ensure that Rane was terrorised and was kept away from the bank elections.

After hearing the submissions due to paucity of time the bench posted the further hearing of the application to Thursday.