Peeved by the “poor” condition of Mumbai-Goa highway, Congress MLA Nitesh Rane and his supporters on Thursday created a ruckus by pouring mud on Public Works Department’s sub-engineer and briefly tying him to the railing of a bridge at Kankavli in Sindhudurg district.
Amid seven-hour-long drama that saw Prakash Shedekar, a sub-engineer with the PWD Department, lodge a complaint against him, Nitesh — under severe flak from various quarters — drove to the Kankavli police station along with five of his supporters and surrendered in connection with the mud slush hurling incident.
Having booked him and 40 to 50 of his supporters under Sections 353, 342, 332, 324, 323, 120(A), 147, 143, 504, 506 of IPC, the Kankavli police on Thursday evening placed Nitesh and five of his supporters under arrest. They will be produced before a court on Friday morning.
Nitesh, known for politics of arrogance and intimidation, is the son former Chief Minister and the founder-president of Maharashtra Swabhiman Party (MSP) Narayan Rane.
Reacting to the incident, Sr Rane disapproved his son Nitesh’s act and said: “My son has done a wrong thing. I have apologised on his behalf. He has to also apologise. Let’s face it, the actual act has been committed by Nitesh’s supporters. But, as a leader of the agitation, Nitesh has to own up his mistake. At the same time, cannot the officials see the potholes on the highway?”
Trouble broke out earlier in the afternoon, when Nitesh accompanied by Kankavli Municipal Council president and activists of the NDA-affiliated MSP drove down to the stretch of a bridge on the Gad River near Kankavli, to inspect the road repairs being carried out by the PWD officials on a stretch of the bridge.
Nitesh and his supporters questioned sub-engineer, Prakash Shedekar about the bad condition of the roads and told the latter that the people had to routinely potholed highway with mud slush.
“People are bearing brunt of the poor condition of the road every day. Now, it is your turn to experience it...,” an angry Nitesh told Shedekar.
Meanwhile, some of his supporters emptied two buckets full of mud slush and slime on Shedekar. They hurled abuses at him, elbowed him and also roughed him up.
At one stage, the protesters tied up Shedekar to the railing of the partially constructed bridge on which the incident took place, in a bid to teach the official a lesson
Before long, videos of the incident went viral on social media, earning Nitesh widespread criticism and condemnation from the twitter users.
Later in the afternoon, an unfazed Nitesh defended his act. “Now I will myself oversee the repair work on this highway, with a stick in my hand. Every day at 7 am I will reach here. Let me see how the system wins. We have the medicine to tackle their arrogance,” he said.
However, after his father and senior Rane apologised and chided him, Nitesh drove to the Kankavli police station and surrendered himself.
Nitesh has had more than his share of controversies. In a recent incident that took place in 2017, he threw a fish at a senior Government officer after he lost his cool during a meeting.