Mumbai, May 21: MLA Nitesh Rane obtained ad interim anticipatory bail from a sessions court following the registration of an extortion case against him by a restaurateur.
The bail hearing is to be held on May 25; till then the police cannot take action against Rane, who is the son of former Congress minister Narayan Rane, or arrest him.
Nitesh Rane told TOI that the case filed against him by Hitesh Keswani, one of the partners in Estella Hotel on Juhu Tara Road, at the Santacruz police station on Thursday could be the fallout of his protesting against the noise from the restaurant.
"Keswani is a good friend of mine. But the allegations have been made against me as I stood up against the hotel for playing loud music at night. I have even complained to the Mumbai commissioner of police and the municipal commissioner about it," he said.
Rane said that several residents and even his father had written to the BMC and the commissioner complaining about the loud music.
He said he had never sought to be made a partner in the restaurant or asked for the payment of a regular sum, as alleged in the police complaint.
"I have nothing to do with the lounge or hotel. I did not demand any money or partnership. All these are baseless allegations against me," he said.
He said that it was possible there was something between Keswani and his partner Parag Sanghvi and that his name was unnecessarily being dragged into it.
One of the owners told TOI: "We have got at least 50 calls and had at least 18 meetings with Nitesh Rane on making him a partner. Also, we have got four to five text messages where he demanded a ransom to run the hotel. We have got all the necessary licences cleared from the BMC to run the hotel. So how it can be illegal?"
Two of Rane's aides, Moin Shaikh (36) and Mohammed Ansari (36), were arrested on Thursday night for allegedly forcing Estella Hotel to down shutters for refusing to give Rs 10 lakh to Rane.
The FIR against Rane said that from January he had paid Rane Rs 50 lakh — Rs 10 lakh each month. "But the problem continued. Nitesh kept calling us, repeatedly asking to be made a partner. Ultimately he demanded that he be paid Rs10 lakh every month. We started paying through RTGS to his account. After this month's payment, we told him we were running losses and so it would be difficult to meet his demand. This annoyed Nitesh," one of the restaurant partners said.
Rane alleged that the restaurant owner's claim that his premises had been ransacked was baseless as nothing was seen in the CCTV.
DCP (zone IX) Paramjit Dahiya said there was no intimation to the police station on the anticipatory bail matter. "Only ad interim bail has been granted, not final anticipatory bail," Dahiya said.