Nitesh Rane's men tried to evict me from my office: Businessman

Mumbai: A 40-year-old textile businessman has approached the Bombay high court alleging that individuals claiming to be supporters of Congress MLA Nitesh Narayan Rane are allegedly attempting to evict him from his  Bandra office,  bought by him last year. The court asked the petitioner to submit an application seeking police protection after he expressed fear for the safety of his and his family's well-being in view of alleged threats from the supporters.  

Rohit Kandhari has filed the petition through Rajiv Chavan and O.A. Siddiqui, alleging on December 26, he received call from his manager saying that five people were attempting to enter their office and were trying to wrongfully dispossess the workers there. The petitioner said that he was also informed that the persons gathered at his office were allegedly recovering money for Mr Rane because the developer of the building allegedly owed that money to the MLA. Mr Kandhari further alleged that the Mr Rane's people wanted him to pay a visit to the leader's office, situated on the first floor of the same building, and hand over the keys to the premises of his own office.

When contacted, Mr Rane denied the allegations. He said, “I have not received any notice and hence it is not possible for me to answer anything.” He also said that if the court has issued any directions, he is ready to abide by the same. Mr Kandhari's advocate argued before that on Mr Kandhari's instructions, his manager called the police by dialling 100. But when the police reached the spot, people who had gathered there escaped from the scene. It is also mentioned in the petition that on December 27, somebody called the petitioner introducing himself as a supporter of Mr Rane haid allegedly threatened him.

During the hearing, the court asked Mr Kandhari to make Mr Rane a respondent in the petition and  and deferred hearing on the matter to later in the day. But in the evening, the petitioner's lawyer filed an affidavit saying that when he had personally gone to  office at 1 pm to serve him notice and give him a copy of the petition, the MLA's representative refused to accept the same.