Assault on engineer: Congress MLA Nitesh Rane gets bail
Mumbai, Jul 10: 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.
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Kharge expresses regret over 'illiterate' remark, says he has highest of respect for Gujaratis
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New Delhi (PTI): Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday expressed regret over his controversial statement calling the people of Gujarat "illiterate", and said he has always had and will continue to have the highest of respect for the people of the state.
In a post on X, the Congress president said, "Some remarks of mine in a recent election speech in Kerala are being deliberately misinterpreted. Even so, I express my sincere regret.
"It was never my intention to hurt the sentiments of the people of Gujarat for whom I have always had and will continue to have the highest of respect."
Kharge on Sunday had sparked a row during his Assembly poll campaign in Kerala, calling the people of Gujarat "illiterate" and claiming they were being "fooled" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At the same time, Kharge said neither Modi nor Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan could fool the people of Kerala, describing them as "very clever and educated".
"Don’t misguide the people of Kerala. They are very clever and educated. Modiji, Vijayan, you both can fool people who are illiterate in Gujarat or other places, but you cannot fool the people of Kerala," the Congress chief had said.
He made the remark while alleging that both Modi and Vijayan were following the same path, with no difference between them except the parties they lead.
The BJP on Tuesday had demanded an apology from Kharge for his remarks, saying that the comment was "shameless, demeaning and utterly despicable."
Addressing a press conference here, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to clarify whether they agreed with Kharge's statement.
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