Remarks against CM: Rane gets relief from Dhule court

In a relief for Union Minister Narayan Rane, a sessions court at Dhule granted him pre-arrest bail in the FIR registered against him for making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in August 2021. This is the first case of the five in which Rane has been given pre-arrest bail.

Principal district judge RH Mohammad, on Tuesday, granted Rane anticipatory bail against a surety of Rs 15,000. The minister has been directed to cooperate with the investigation and attend the police station as and when called.

Five FIRs were filed against Rane at Mahad, Nashik, Pune, Thane, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar over

his remark that he would have slapped Thackeray over the latter’s ignorance of the year of India’s independence. Rane had made the statement at a press conference in August 2021.

Rane’s advocate, Aniket Nikam, argued that section 153 (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was not applicable in the case as Rane had not appealed to any particular group or class of people to take law in their hands. He further argued that the state government has filed different FIRs against him based on the same incident at different places. Even the sections invoked are different at different places and hence all of this smacks of political mala fide, argued Nikam.

Seeking relief for Rane, Nikam argued that he is a cabinet minister and there is no question of him absconding or not being available. Besides, the police have never called him for questioning or investigation and now they are opposing the anticipatory bail, he added.