A court in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district has sentenced state minister Nitesh Rane of the BJP to one month in prison in a case linked to an incident in 2019, when mud was allegedly poured on a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) engineer.
The case dates back to July 4, 2019, when Rane inspected work on the Mumbai–Goa highway expansion near the Gad river bridge in Kankavli. NHAI sub-division engineer Prakash Shedekar was present during the visit.
According to the prosecution, Rane, unhappy with the quality of the road work, poured mud on the engineer and allegedly forced him to walk in it in front of the public, triggering controversy at the time. Police registered a case against Rane and about 30 supporters.
Delivering the verdict after a trial that ran for about six years, Additional Sessions Judge V.S. Deshmukh said that even if the intent was to raise concerns about poor road work and public hardship, there was no right to publicly humiliate a government employee. The court acquitted the accused on several charges citing lack of sufficient evidence, but convicted Rane on the charge of intentional insult likely to disturb public peace.
The court has stayed Rane’s sentence to allow him to file an appeal against the conviction.
