A COURT in Sindhudurg on Monday convicted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2019 case of pouring mud on an NHAI engineer when he was in Opposition, and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment, noting that lawmakers are not supposed to take the law into their hands. Later, court suspended Rane’s sentence, allowing him time to appeal before a higher court, while acquitting 29 other accused in the case.

 

“Even though Rane’s intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public,” additional sessions court judge V S Deshmukh stated. “If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity,” the judge noted.