Mumbai, Jun 26 (PTI): A Mumbai court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in connection with a defamation complaint lodged against him in 2023 by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut.
The court had last month issued a bailable warrant against Rane for failing to appear for hearings in the case.
During the hearing on June 2, the BJP leader had filed an application seeking permanent exemption from appearance.
However, on Thursday, Judicial Magistrate First Class (Mazgaon court) A A Kulkarni denied him permanent exemption and issued a non-bailable warrant.
The matter has been adjourned to July 18 for a report on the NBW.
Earlier too, the court had issued multiple warrants against Rane, who is BJP MLA from the state's Konkan region, for failing to appear in the hearing of the case.
In May 2023, Nitesh Rane, son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, had allegedly called Raut a "snake" who would ditch Uddhav Thackeray and join the (undivided) NCP by June that year.
Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, filed a complaint before the magistrate's court seeking action against Nitesh Rane for the alleged "defamatory and blatantly false" remarks.
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Bengaluru: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the southwest monsoon will cause heavy rainfall likely this weekend and will drench Karnataka over the next 10 days.
The monsoon has begun retreating from northwestern India. Conditions remain active over the south, with an upper air trough extending up to 1.5 km over North Interior Karnataka and northern Tamil Nadu, combined with weakening monsoon winds across the peninsula, is driving the current spell. N. Puviarasan, head of the IMD’s meteorological centre in Bengaluru, said in a conversation with Deccan Herald, “As a result, the whole of Karnataka will see rain over the next week to 10 days."
With a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean along with a low-pressure system over the north Bay of Bengal, the monsoon is expected to intensify during the next four days. IMD has predicted heavy rains across South Interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru, throughout the weekend.
Bengaluru, recorded widespread moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday. Between 8.30 am and 8.30 pm, Bengaluru city logged 45.9 mm of rain accompanied by thunderstorms. HAL airport registered 6 mm and the Bengaluru Urban automatic station recorded 47.5 mm. Doddathoguru, near Electronics City, reported 55 mm.
According to IMD forecast heavy rainfall will occur at isolated places in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Yadgir, Koppal, Raichur, Ramanagara and Mandya districts in the next few days.
The southwest monsoon is now expected to extend until mid-October and with little or no break in between, the northeast monsoon is likely to follow immediately. These are expected to last until December. “There may be no break in between,” Puviarasan said.