The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Nitesh Rane, MLA and son of Union minister Narayan Rane, to surrender before a trial court and seek regular bail in an attempt-to-murder case registered against him by a Shiv Sena leader in Maharashtra.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana rejected the BJP legislator’s anticipatory bail but granted 10 days’ interim protection to enable him to surrender and seek regular bail.
The bench, which also had Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, passed the direction while refusing to interfere with the concurrent views of a sessions court and Bombay High Court that had declined to grant Nitesh anticipatory bail in connection with the December 18 alleged murder attempt on Sena leader Santosh Parab at the alleged instance of the Kankavli MLA.
Nitesh, whose father Narayan is minister of micro, small and medium enterprises at the Centre, had filed a special leave petition in the apex court challenging the refusal of anticipatory bail. He has claimed that the allegations are politically motivated.
During the hearing on Thursday, senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Nitesh, submitted that the case was the fallout of political vendetta to stop the MLA from discharging his duties.
Terming the case “cooked up”, Rohatgi argued that Nitesh had been falsely implicated in the case to prevent him from participating in the Sindhudurg District Cooperative Bank elections.
Rohatgi submitted that Parab had suffered minor injuries, inflicted with a paper cutter by some unidentified persons.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Maharashtra government, opposed Nitesh’s anticipatory bail on the ground that custodial interrogation was essential to unearth the criminal conspiracy leading to the attack on Parab.
Contesting Rohatgi’s contention that the case was politically motivated, Singhvi submitted call data records of the other accused persons that indicated a conspiracy.
He said CCTV footage had shown one of the attackers with a screwdriver and a paper cutter.
CJI Ramana said the court was not conducting a full-fledged trial and was only concerned with the anticipatory bail application. The bench directed Nitesh to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail.