Shiv Sena hits back at Narayan Rane for attacking Uddhav

MUMBAI - The Shiv Sena Saturday hit out at Revenue Minister Narayan Rane for accusing its executive president Uddhav Thackeray for the shootout in which Swabhiman Sanghatana chief Nitesh Rane was allegedly involved.

“Rane is speaking out of frustration and unhappiness. Let him say anything, we are not bothered,” party MP and spokesman Sanjay Raut said here.

Late Friday night, Rane alleged that Thackeray and the Shiv Sena were behind the conspiracy against his son Nitesh Rane, who was said to be involved in the shootout in which a Swabhiman Sanghatana member, Shamim Jamaluddin Shaikh alias Chintu, was injured.

“Uddhav Thackeray is behind the conspiracy against Nitesh. Chintu Sheikh never visited Nitesh Rane’s office in Khar Thursday. I did not want to speak before the police complete their preliminary probe. Now that the medical report from Hiranandani Hospital has come, I am addressing the media,” Rane said at a hurriedly called media conference.

Asked on what basis was he accusing the Sena, especially since Shaikh had joined the Swabhiman Sanghatana from the breakaway Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) of Raj Thackeray, Rane, who was flanked by his sons Nilesh and Nitesh, said that not a single MNS activist visited him at the hospital.

“However, all Shiv Sena vibhag pramukhs and ex-legislators reached the Hiranandani Hospital in the night after Uddhav Thackeray telephoned Shaikh twice and assured him that the Shiv Sena will support him and that he should not be afraid. Sheikh was in the Shiv Sena before leaving for the MNS, and then joining my son’s NGO,” said Rane.

Meanwhile, the attempt to murder case against Nitesh Rane became more confusing after the hospital’s medical report said that the victim, Shaikh, suffered no bullet injury.

Sudhir Chatterji, a doctor at Hiranandani Hospital, told television channels that Shaikh was admitted to the hospital Thursday evening.

“We have done an X-ray and the CT Scan and we don’t think it is a bullet injury. His condition is stable,” Chatterji asserted.

Even as the police probe report was awaited, the state political scene heated up with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s oppositon leader Eknath Khadse and state party chief Sudhir Mungantiwar demanding a CBI probe into what they felt was “a very serious issue.”

“It is a politically motivated incident and the police are probing the incident. The truth would come out soon,” said Nilesh Rane, MP from Konkan and Nitesh’s elder brother, brushing off the opposition allegations.

Nitesh Rane also denied the incident, stating that he had not met Shaikh and had armed security and hence did not need to carry a weapon. “It is a conspiracy to defame me and my organisation,” he said.

Referring to the allegations, he tweeted Friday evening on Twitter: “Can’t trap a tiger using a mousetrap…Better luck next time!!”