Nilesh Rane arrested in assault case, sent in judicial custody

Former Congress MP Nilesh Rane was on Friday arrested by the Chiplun police in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in a case where he is accused of assaulting and kidnapping a local party worker.

Nilesh, son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, was later produced before the magistrate's court in Chiplun which rejected his bail application after remanding him in 14-day judicial custody.

He was placed under arrest after he surrendered before Chiplun police at around 8 am.

The Bombay high court, on Tuesday, had refused him pre-arrest bail and asked him to surrender before the police on or before May 23.

The police had told the high court that there were serious allegations against Rane and his custodial interrogation was needed as investigation was on.

A case was registered by Thane police against Nilesh Rane, his personal assistant Tushar Panchal and bodyguard Manish Singh last month for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting Congress's Chiplun unit chief Sandeep Sawant.

According to the FIR, Rane and others allegedly kidnapped Sawant from Chiplun and assaulted him on way to Mumbai for not attending a rally organised by Rane to demand reservation for the Maratha community.

According to Sawant, he did not attend the Chiplun rally because his mother was ill.

Sawant was allegedly confined to a house in Andheri in Mumbai and later let off. He then reached Thane and got admitted to a hospital. Thane police registered a case.

Narayan Rane had visited Sawant in the hospital, reportedly to request him to withdraw the complaint against Nilesh Rane, but Sawant did not budge.