Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane was sentenced to one month in jail for a 2019 incident. During a protest over poor highway conditions, he and supporters poured muddy water on an NHAI engineer. A court found Rane guilty of intentional insult, ruling that public representatives cannot humiliate officials.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane has been sentenced to one month in jail by a Sindhudurg court in connection with a 2019 incident in which an engineer from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was publicly humiliated during a protest over the poor condition of the Mumbai-Goa highway.
The case dates back to July 4, 2019, when Rane, then an opposition MLA, confronted NHAI sub-divisional engineer Prakash Shedekar at a bridge inspection site in Kankavli. Prosecutors said Rane and his supporters poured muddy water on the engineer and forced him to walk through slush in public to protest repeated complaints about potholes and waterlogging on the highway.
While the court acquitted 29 co-accused of serious charges including rioting and criminal conspiracy due to lack of evidence, it found Rane guilty under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code for intentional insult intended to provoke a breach of peace. The judge observed that public representatives cannot humiliate officials even while raising legitimate public concerns.
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Additional Sessions Judge V.S. Deshmukh said, "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 court further remarked, "If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity." The judgment described the act as an "abuse of power" and stressed that such conduct by lawmakers must be discouraged.
Along with the jail sentence, the court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Rane, with Rs 50,000 directed as compensation to the engineer. However, the sentence was immediately suspended to allow the minister time to appeal before a higher court.
The ruling has triggered fresh political debate in Maharashtra, as opposition parties accused the BJP of shielding controversial leaders, while Rane’s legal team said they would challenge the conviction. The case has once again brought focus to the limits of political protest and the treatment of public servants in India’s increasingly heated political climate.
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