HC refuses pre-arrest bail to Rane, asks him to surrender

Mumbai, May 17 () The Bombay High Court today refused to grant pre-arrest bail to former Congress MP Nilesh Rane, son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, in a case of alleged assault and kidnapping filed by a party worker from Chiplun in Ratnagiri district. Justice Ajay Gadkari asked him to surrender before policeon or before May 23 while allowing Rane to withdraw hisanticipatory bail petition."I am of the view that this is not a fit case to grantanticipatory bail," the Judge ruled after perusing a policereply opposing Rane's plea for liberty and also while goingthrough the FIR lodged against him.The police said in a written reply that there wereserious allegations against Rane and his custodialinterrogation was needed as investigations were still on.When the court said it was not inclined to grant Ranepre-arrest bail and was about to dismiss his petition, hislawyer Rajendra Shirodkar sought to withdraw the plea with arider that Rane would surrender to police.The court allowed him to withdraw the petition and askedhim to surrender within a week.The judge gave his ruling after hearing public prosecutorArfan Sait and Rane's counsel Shirodkar on granting pre-arrestbail to Rane.A case was earlier registered by Thane police againstRane, his personal assistant Tushar Panchal and bodyguardManish Singh under IPC sections for allegedly kidnapping andassaulting Congress president of Chiplun taluka, SandeepSawant, in April.A sessions court had earlier rejected Rane's plea forpre-arrest bail. Aggrieved, Rane moved the high court with aplea for anticipatory bail.According to the FIR, Nilesh Rane and his accomplices hadallegedly kidnapped Sawant and assaulted him on way to Mumbaifor not attending a rally called by Rane at Chiplun inRatnagiri district to demand reservation for the Marathacommunity.Sawant was allegedly confined to a house at Andheri inMumbai and later let-off, the complaint alleged.Sawant had told Rane that he could not attend the rallybecause his mother had taken ill in a nearby village and hehad to rush there to be with her. (MORE) SVS GK PALRDS