JOIN USCourt discharges Narayan Rane in slap remark case
In a relief for Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and senior BJP leader Narayan Rane, a court in the Raigad district on Sunday discharged him from a case about his “tight slap" remark against his bete noire and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
A senior politician, Rane (70) had served as Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition.
In August 2021, Rane, in a public function, had said, "...yeh kaisa mukhya mantri hai, jisko apne desh ka swatantrata diwas pata nahi…agar mai waha hota toh kaan ke neeche thappad laga deta,” which translates to: “it is shameful that the Chief Minister does not know the year of Independence. He leaned back to enquire about the count of years of Independence during his speech. Had I been there, I would have given (him) a tight slap.”
Rane had defended his statement saying that he had not committed any crime.
After the incident, an FIR was lodged was registered against Rane at Mahad in Raigad district under Sections 189 (threat of injury to public servant), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of public peace) and 505 (statements conducive to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.
Subsequently, Rane was arrested and later granted bail by the court in Mahad.
Last week, Chief Judicial Magistrate (Raigad-Alibaug) S W Ugale discharged Rane from the case.
During the hearing, Rane’s defence team had contended that the case was politically motivated.
“The statement on the [then] Chief Minister’s conduct. He didn’t make any statement which was promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever…the alleged statement was not likely to cause any disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities,” Rane’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde had told the court.