Mud attack on PWD engineer: Congress MLA Nitesh Rane sent to 4-day police custody till July 9

Kankanavi: Congress MLA Nitesh Rane along with 17 supporters were on Friday sent to police custody till July 9 following their arrest for assaulting a PWD engineer and throwing mud on him.

The Congress MLA was arrested by the police for throwing mud on a Public Works Department (PWD) engineer and attempting to tie him to a bridge on the Mumbai-Goa highway on Thursday.

The accused were produced in a court in Kankavali, which remanded them to police custody till July 9.

After the incident, which triggered a public outrage, an FIR was filed against Rane in Kankavali town of Sindhuburg district on Thursday. 

Earlier on Thursday, Rane arrived at Kankavali section of the highway to conduct an inspection of the work done by the government authorities. 

He also called PWD engineer Prakash Khadekar to the spot and reprimanded him over the situation of the highway, which was ridden with potholes.

The confrontation was captured in a video that went viral. In the video, Rane's supporters could be seen pouring buckets of mud on Khadekar and tying him to the railing of the bridge.

Later, the assaulted engineer filed a complaint under IPC Section 353 (assault on government servant) against Nitesh Rane and his supporters.

Rane is the Congress MLA from Kankanavi area of Sindhudurg district. 

He is the son of BJP-nominated Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane, who is a veteran Maharashtra politician and has earlier served as the chief minister of the state.