Mud assault: Cong’s Rane gets bail

Mumbai, July 10

A court in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district granted bail on Wednesday to Congress MLA Nitesh Rane and 18 others, arrested for assaulting an engineer of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Rane’s lawyer Sangram Desai said the accused were granted bail against a surety of Rs 20,000 each.

The court directed all 19 accused to visit the police station concerned every Sunday for two hours and cooperate with the probe, he said.

The judge also said Rane and others must ensure that such incidents did not occur again, advocate Desai said. Rane and others were arrested on July 4 after they were caught on camera abusing NHAI deputy engineer Prakash Shedekar and pouring a bucket of mud on him in Kankavli town, protesting against pothole-riddled roads and slush on the Mumbai-Goa highway. Nitesh is son of former Maharashtra chief minister and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane. — PTI