Mapusa court on Thursday acquitted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2013 case in which he was accused of vandalising a toll booth at Dhargal on the Goa-Maharashtra highway and assaulting attendants over paying the toll.
Rane, who had sought exemption from paying the toll by virtue of being the son of then Maharashtra Congress leader Narayan Rane, allegedly vandalised the booth after he was denied the exemption.
“I wish to sincerely thank the honourable court for acquitting all of us and giving us justice. Our team of lawyers did a good job placing the facts before the court and we have, as expected, received justice,” Rane said outside the court in Mapusa following the verdict.
He, however, refused to recount the incident and said that it would not be proper to relive it now that the court had delivered its verdict after hearing both sides.
Rane’s lawyers said that the court acquitted him on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to prove the case. Rane, along with eight others, was arrested in the case and later granted bail.
The convoy was heading from Maharashtra to Goa for a private function when the scuffle took place.
{{/usCountry}}The convoy was heading from Maharashtra to Goa for a private function when the scuffle took place.
{{/usCountry}}The prosecution had argued that Rane, along with his associates, vandalised the toll booth and assaulted the attendants.
The Goa government, during the tenure of then chief minister Manohar Parrikar, had imposed an “entry fee” on all non-Goa-registered vehicles—private and commercial—entering the state. The fee was in place between 2013 and 2017, when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out across the country. However, following an uproar, the Goa government granted an exemption to vehicles registered in the neighbouring districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka.