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Narayan Rane gets bail after arrest over 'slap' remark against Uddhav Thackeray
Narayan Rane's counsel pleaded with the court to grant bail to the Union minister on various grounds, including his health.
Union minister Narayan Rane was granted bail late on Tuesday night hours after he was arrested over his remarks on Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Rane was arrested at Sangameshwar in Ratnagiri earlier in the day by a team of police from Nashik over allegations that he said he wanted to "slap" chief minister Thackeray for "forgetting the year of India's independence" a day earlier when he travelling for the Jan Ashirwad Yatra in Raigad.
Rane was granted bail by the court of the first-class judicial magistrate in Mahad, even as the counsel representing the state government appealed for seven-day judicial custody.
However, Rane's counsel pleaded with the court to grant bail to the Union minister on various grounds, including his health.
The 69-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader would approach the Bombay high court with a quashing petition against multiple FIRs registered against him across the state and seeking urgent protection from arrests. At least three FIRs were registered against Rane — one each in Nashik, Pune and Mahad.
Rane's comments and his subsequent arrest sparked a political row in Maharashtra with the BJP state leadership coming out in support of the Union minister, claiming that the action was "political vendetta", even as Shiv Sena demanded his expulsion from the Union Cabinet.
The BJP didn’t condone Rane’s remarks, but stood by its leader and said the action taken against him was uncalled for when similar remarks by Sena leaders, including chief minister Thackeray, go unnoticed. BJP chief JP Nadda said the party's Jan Ashirwad Yatra would continue, even in the absence of Rane.
A former Shiv Sena leader, Rane was expelled from the party in 2005.
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The Union minister also said that the police should understand that the BJP, of which he is a leader, runs the government at the Centre.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena’s Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg MP Vinayak Raut said Rane had lost his "mental balance".
The BJP, on the other hand, circulated videos on social media to claim that police detained Rane while he was having lunch, and was manhandled.
The controversy over Rane's remarks also triggered clashes between Shiv Sena and BJP activists at several places in the state.
