Police to decide on Nitesh Rane's fate

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed Bandra police to decide within a week whether the complaint lodged by a businessman against Congress MLA Nitesh Rane merited formal probe.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by Rohit Kandhari, 40, alleging that certain individuals claiming to be supporters of Mr Rane had threatened him, asking him to vacate his Bandra office and hand over the keys to them. The HC asked police to inform the complainant whether it was going to register a FIR or not. The court also said that in case the police decided against filing a FIR, they must give reasons for the doing so. The HC further granted liberty to the complainant to make an application before Mumbai police, if he needed protection.

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was hearing the petition filed by Mr Kandhari alleging that persons claiming to be Mr Rane’s supporters were trying to evict him from his Bandra office, bought by him last year. According to Mr Kandhari, he had received a call from his manager on December 26 saying that five people were trying to enter his office and wrongfully dispossess workers there. The petitioner also informed that people gathered at his office were allegedly recovering money for Mr Rane because the developer of the building owed money to the MLA. Mr Kandhari further alleged that Mr Rane’s people wanted him to pay a visit to the leader’s office located on the first floor of the same building and hand over keys of his own office.  

Earlier, the vacation court had asked Mr Kandhari to submit an application seeking police protection after he expressed concerns about his own safety and that of his family in view of the alleged threats.