Narayan Rane's son's bail plea rejected by the Maharashtra court

On Thursday, a court in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg rejected BJP lawmaker Nitesh Rane's anticipatory bail application, dealing a massive political blow to the son of Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane.

After receiving the copy of the court orders, Sangram Desai said they would move the Bombay High Court as soon as possible since bail had been denied.

This evening, District and Sessions Principal Judge Shirishkumar V. Hande issued the bail rejection order following a legal battle that had been going on between Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat and the defence team since Tuesday morning.

In an assault case, Nitesh Rane, 39, and his co-accused Gotya Sawant, 28, were both denied bail. Rane has gone "incommunicado."

Despite this, attorney Desai said that it would be incorrect to describe Nitesh Rane as an "absconder"- even though the Maharashtra Police are expected to increase their efforts to arrest him. The Rane family - one of the most prominent political families in the coastal Konkan - has suffered a major embarrassment for the second time in five months.

A massive row between the BJP and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government erupted after the Union Minister was arrested in high drama on August 24 and released on bail after his infamous "slap-slur" against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

In the immediate aftermath of the court ruling, Shiv Sena members burst firecrackers, raised victory slogans and cheered.

Rane Jr., who is known for his bravado, filed the petition in the Sindhudurg court seeking relief against any coercive action against him in his political bastion Kankavli for an attempted murder case. A few months ago, Santosh Parab was riding his motorcycle when a car without a license plate hit him, a person jumped out, stabbed him in the chest, and then fled.

The 44-year-old Parab later complained to the police that he heard the assailant saying "we must notify Gotya Sawant and Nitesh Rane." before leaving.

In response to the complaint, the Sindhudurg police filed an FIR charging Nitesh Rane and others with attempted murder, common intent, etc., and served them notice.

The police subsequently interrogated Rane Jr. for over two hours following the notice last Saturday.

According to Nitesh Rane's bail application, he was busy campaigning for BJP candidates standing in the district bank polls, and that any coercive action would affect his work.

Additionally, he confirmed that he would be available for police investigations whenever they were needed, and insisted that no evidence existed that he had been involved in the attempt to murder case. Although the police were actively searching for him, he suddenly went "incommunicado" over the past few days, switching off his phone and his aides denying knowledge of his whereabouts.

Maharashtra Police contacted Union Minister Narayan Rane on December 29 and asked him to join the probe, but the latter declined, saying he was good with a video-conference call with the investigators. Former Chief Minister Nitish assailed the question of his son's current location, saying: "I am not a fool to reveal where he (Nitesh) is."