Pune: Trouble is brewing for Udayanraje Bhosale, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP from Satara and a descendant of the Chattrapati Shivaji, after the Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed his petition for anticipatory bail in an extortion case.
The bench of Justice Prakash Naik, hearing the two-month old petition, rejected granting of relief to the controversial Satara MP. Mr. Bhosale could be arrested any time.
“Everyone is equal before the law and he [Bhosale] will be arrested at the right moment, within the framework of law,” Vishvas Nangre Patil, Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur Range) had said last week, commenting on the case.
Second rejection
The spectre of arrest has been hovering over the rebel NCP leader ever since the Satara District and Sessions Court rejected his anticipatory bail petition on April . Following this, Mr. Bhosale had moved the High Court.
In March, the Satara district police had registered an FIR against Udayanraje and other persons following a complaint by Rajkumar Jain, an official with the Ahmedabad-based Sona Alloys, whose industrial unit is located in Satara’s Lonand Industrial Area sited in the district’s Khandala Taluk.
Mr. Jain had alleged that the MP and his henchmen had demanded ‘protection money’ after summoning him to an official guest house in Satara on February 18. When he refused to pay, Mr. Jain said he was physically assaulted by Mr. Bhosale and his men and relieved of cash and important documents.
Notorious for his frequent outrageous behaviour, Mr. Bhosale was elected MP after he contested on an NCP ticket in his fief, Satara, during the Lok Sabha elections, winning by a massive margin of three lakh votes. Prior to this, he served as the Revenue Minister in the BJP-Shiv Sena government from 1995 to 1999.