Assault on engineer: Cong MLA Nitesh Rane gets bail

A court in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district granted bail on Wednesday to Congress MLA Nitesh Rane and 18 others, arrested for assaulting an engineer of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Rane's lawyer Sangram Desai said the accused were granted bail against a surety of Rs 20,000 each.

The court directed all the 19 accused to visit the police station concerned every Sunday for two hours and cooperate with the probe, he said.

The judge also said that Rane and others must ensure that such incidents do not occur again, advocate Desai said.

Rane and others were arrested on July 4 after they were caught on camera abusing NHAI deputy engineer Prakash Shedekar and pouring a bucket of mud on him in Kankavli town, protesting against pothole-riddled roads and slush on the Mumbai-Goa highway.

They were booked under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 120-b (criminal conspiracy).

Nitesh is son of former Maharashtra chief minister and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane.