Published On : Wed, Aug 25th, 2021
National News / News 2 | By Nagpur Today Nagpur News

Rane’s arrest OK, not custodial probe: Court

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A court at Mahad in Maharashtra while granting bail to Union Minister Narayan Rane said his arrest over his controversial remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was justified, but his custodial interrogation was not necessary.

The order was passed by the court late Tuesday night and a detailed copy of it was made available on Wednesday.

“Considering the reason for arrest and other reasons, I found that the arrest is justified,” magistrate S S Patil said in the order.

The court noted that while a few sections under which Rane was booked were non-bailable, they were not punishable with life or death. Considering these factors, no prejudice would be caused to the prosecution if the accused is released on bail, the court said, adding that “the accused shall not commit a similar type of offence”.

Rane was arrested on Tuesday afternoon from Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra following his remarks that he would have slapped Chief Minister Thackeray for what he claimed as the latter’s ignorance of the year of India’s independence.

The Union minister was produced before magistrate Patil at Mahad in Raigad on Tuesday night. The police sought his custody for seven days, which the court refused and remanded him to judicial custody till September 4. Rane’s advocates then moved a bail application. The plea was heard and Rane was granted bail on a surety of Rs 15,000. He was directed to appear at the office of Superintendent of Police in Alibaug (Raigad) on August 30 and September 13.

Rane’s advocate Rajendra Shirodkar argued that the police had not followed the mandate of law laid down under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which says in cases where arrest is not warranted, the police ought to first issue a notice/summons to the accused for questioning.