Cong MLA Nitesh Rane dumps mud on NHAI engineer; detained

Congress MLA Nitesh Rane and his supporters Thursday were caught on camera attacking a deputy engineer with mud in Maharashtra, an incident which comes days after a BJP legislator assaulted a civic official with a cricket bat in Madhya Pradesh.

Nitesh Rane, the son of BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former chief minister Narayan Rane, and seven of his supporters were booked and detained for the mud attack on deputy engineer Prakash Shedekar of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at Kankavli in Sindhudurg district, police said.

The process is on to arrest him, a senior police official said from Kankavli, over 300km from Mumbai.

Narayan Rane has apologied for his son's conduct.

Nitesh Rane, the MLA from Kankavli, and his supporters were protesting after finding potholes and mud on the busy Mumbai-Goa highway that passes through the coastal district.

In the video clip that has gone viral on social media, Nitesh Rane and his supporters, including Kankavli Municipal Council president Samir Nalawade, were purportedly seen tying Shedekar to the railing of a bridge and pouring buckets of mud on him.

"Every day the locals have to face such mud from the passing vehicles...you also experience it," Nitesh Rane and Nalawade were heard saying to Shedekar.

The MLA and his supporters 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), the official said.

A section of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act was also slapped on them, he said.

As the video of the incident went viral and caused an outrage, Narayan Rane apologised for his son's misconduct.

"I apologise for my son's act of pouring mud on a government official. The protest (against poor condition of the highway) was for the local people," the former chief minister told PTI.

The incident comes close on the heels of an attack by BJP lawmaker Akash Vijayvargiya, the son of senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, on a civic official in Indore on June 26.

Akash Vijayvargiya, who was later arrested and spent four days in jail before getting bail, attacked the official with a cricket bat over demolition of a dilapidated building.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly disapproved of Akash Vijayvargiya's misconduct and told party leaders that arrogance and misbehaviour cannot be tolerated.