Sindhudurg court convicts Nitesh Rane for insulting NHAI engineer; sentence suspended to allow appeal
A court in Sindhudurg on Monday convicted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2019 case involving the humiliation of a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) engineer and sentenced him to one month’s imprisonment.
The additional sessions court, however, suspended the sentence to allow Rane time to appeal before a higher court. The court also acquitted 29 other accused in the case.
Delivering the verdict, additional sessions judge V S Deshmukh observed, “Even though Rane’s intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work and inconvenience faced by the people, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public.”
The judge further noted, “If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity,” and described the act as an “abuse of power”, adding that “it is the demand of time to curb such tendency”.
Rane, son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, was among 30 individuals charged under multiple sections, including rioting, assault to deter a public servant, and criminal conspiracy. At the time of the incident, he was a Congress MLA.
While all accused, including Rane, were acquitted of most charges due to lack of sufficient evidence, the court found him guilty under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code (intentional insult intended to provoke breach of peace).
What happened in 2019
The case dates back to July 4, 2019, when Rane allegedly called NHAI sub-divisional engineer Prakash Shedekar to inspect a bridge over the Gad river in Kankavli, related to the Mumbai-Goa Highway widening project.
According to the prosecution, Rane and his supporters, angered by poor road conditions and waterlogging, confronted the engineer, poured muddy water on him, and forced him to walk through slush in public.
The court observed that the victim, a senior official, was humiliated during the incident.
“Despite that, he was made to walk through the muddy water in public. It would have certainly humiliated and insulted him,” the court said.
The judge held that compelling the engineer to walk through muddy water “was nothing but an intentional insult to the informant,” amounting to provocation that could lead to a breach of public peace.
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