Mumbai:

The knife attack on Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan – which doctors at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital said left him with six stab wounds, including one near his spinal cord – was not real, Maharashtra Ports Minister Nitesh Rane has alleged, in shocking comments a day after the 54-year-old actor was discharged and returned home.

He accused Mr Khan – whom he seemed to refer to as “garbage” – of “dancing while walking” out of the hospital, and ranted, “I doubted if he had been stabbed… or if he was acting.”

“Look at what Bangladeshis are doing in Mumbai. They entered Saif Ali Khan’s house. Earlier they used to stand at road crossings… now they have started entering houses. Maybe he came to take him (Mr Khan) away. It is good… garbage should be taken away,” the BJP leader said.

#WATCH | Pune: Maharashtra Minister Nitesh Rane says, “Look at what Bangladeshis are doing in Mumbai. They entered Saif Ali Khan’s house. Earlier they used to stand at the crossings of the roads, now they have started entering houses. Maybe he came to take him (Saif) away. It is… pic.twitter.com/XUBwpwQ6RQ

— ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2025

“I saw when he came out of the hospital. I doubted whether he had been stabbed, or he was acting. He was dancing while walking,” he was quoted by news agency ANI.

READ | “If Knife Was 2 mm Deeper…”: Doctors Say Saif Out Of ICU

The crass, and incendiary, comments didn’t end there.

Rane also hit out at NCP leaders Jitendra Awhad and Supriya Sule, accusing them of showing concern only “whenever any Khan, like Shah Rukh Khan or Saif Ali Khan, gets hurt”.

“… everyone starts talking about it then. When a Hindu actor like Sushant Singh Rajput is tortured, no one comes forward to say anything… that Mumbra’s Jeetuddin (a crude reference to Mr Awhad) and Baramati’s Tai (Ms Sule) did not come forward to say anything…”

READ | Held Tightly, Attacker Stabbed Saif In Back To Free Himself: Sources

“Have you ever seen them worrying about any Hindu artist?”

Ajit Pawar Responds

The comments were shrugged off by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who said, “I don’t know what he said… but if he has something on his mind, he can tell the Home Department.” Mumbai Police reports to the state’s Home Ministry, which is led by Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

“The truth, at the moment, is that the person has been arrested. That person had come from Bangladesh… everyone has an attraction towards Mumbai.”

“He needed to go back to Bangladesh after seeing Mumbai (but) needed money,” Mr Pawar said, suggesting Shehzad may have been trying to steal cash to buy a ticket home.

Mr Khan’s nanny had said Shehzad demanded Rs 1 crore when confronted.

READ | Attacker Entered Room Of Saif’s Son Jeh, Wanted Rs 1 Crore: Sources

“Perhaps yesterday, when Saif Ali Khan was going home, looking at his health and clothes it was difficult to guess he was attacked a few days ago. But what happened was true,” Mr Pawar said.

Sanjay Nirupam’s Shocker Too

However, it wasn’t just Nitesh Rane making such comments.

Sanjay Nirupam, who was with the Congress before switching to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction, said, “… the way Saif came out… it seemed nothing happened six days ago.”

Bangladeshi National Arrested

Mr Khan was attacked, the police believe, by Shariful Shehzad, a Bangladeshi national living illegally in India. The cops also believe Shehzad, who said he didn’t know he was in the actor’s home, was trying to burgle it when he was confronted, first by the nanny and then Mr Khan.

Shehzad has been arrested and is in police custody; he was tracked down to Thane after leading the cops on a long-winded chase through parts of Mumbai as he tried to return to Bangladesh.

READ | Paratha By UPI Payment: How Cops Caught Saif Attack Suspect

The lawyer representing Shehzad has argued the allegations are false and that his client is being made a scapegoat because a celebrity is involved. “… nothing (incriminating) has been recovered from him.”

READ | Saif Attacker Jailed For 5 Days, Claims He Is Being Framed

“They have not produced any document to prove he is a Bangladeshi national,” his lawyer said. However, the suspect himself reportedly told cops, “…haan, maine hi kiya hai (yes, I did it)”.

With input from agencies

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Mumbai:

Maharashtra BJP MLA Nitesh Rane has stoked a controversy with his provocative speeches in which he allegedly threatened to hit Muslims, leading police to book him on Monday on charges of hurting religious sentiments.

The opposition immediately latched on to the speeches of Nitesh Rane, son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, after they went viral and hit out at the ruling BJP, asserting the saffron party wants to engineer riots ahead of the state assembly polls due in November.

On his part, BJP Lok Sabha MP Narayan Rane, himself no stranger to controversies, got into damage control mode and sought to calm frayed nerves, saying he has chided his son over the remarks.

Nitesh Rane addressed two public meetings in Shrirampur and Topkhana areas in Ahmednagar district on Sunday in support of Hindu seer Mahant Ramgiri Maharaj, who was in the news last month for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam and Prophet Muhammad.

The MLA warned there would be repercussions if the Maharaj was harmed.

Ramgiri Maharaj has been accused of making derogatory comments about Prophet Mohammad and Islam. Cases have been registered against him at many places in Maharashtra and Muslim leaders have been demanding his arrest.

An official said two FIRs (first information reports) have been registered against Nitesh Rane at Shrirampur and Topkhana police stations in Ahmednagar district, around 260km from Mumbai, for criminal intimidation, intentionally insulting to breach peace and hurting religious sentiments.

The case at Topkhana police station was registered at around 11 pm on Sunday, while another offence was registered at the Shrirampur police station in the early hours of Monday.

Nitesh Rane is not new to controversies. Known for his rustic remarks, he was booked for allegedly making hate speeches in Malvani, Mankhurd and Ghatkopar areas of Mumbai earlier this year.

After the uproar, Nitesh Rane’s father Narayan Rane, the MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan, said he has reprimanded his son and told him not to drag any religion in the matter.

“There is no need to drag any religion but only those who are guilty of it. Not all Muslims are guilty of this, so don’t drag the entire community. I have reprimanded him,” Narayan Rane said.

Sharing Nitesh Rane’s video, AIMIM spokesperson Waris Pathan, in a post on X, requested Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, to arrest the BJP legislator.

“Rane is spreading hatred against Muslims in his entire speech. This is inflammatory speech, hate speech. The BJP is trying to create communal violence in Maharashtra before the state assembly elections,” Pathan alleged.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut also slammed the BJP, his party’s former ally. “You (the BJP) want riots in Maharashtra to win polls. Until they don’t engineer riots they cannot face polls,” opined the Rajya Sabha member.

Raut’s party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said politicians are fuelling violence rather than upholding the state’s ethos, in an apparent reference to the provocative speeches made by Nitesh Rane.

A delegation of Mumbai Congress leaders led by its president Varsha Gaikwad met police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and sought action against the Kankavli MLA and other BJP leaders for making provocative statements.

The Congress delegation also demanded that the police security of Nitesh Rane and other BJP leaders be withdrawn.

“Inflammatory statements are made in Maharashtra and everyone knows that they enjoy (political) patronage. They keep saying our boss sits in ‘Sagar’ bungalow,” Gaikwad told reporters.

‘Sagar’ is the official bungalow of Deputy CM Fadnavis.

“The statement made by Nitesh Rane and (BJP MLC) Prasad Lad have reference to Sagar bungalow and Devendra Fadnavis Ji. It has to be probed whether they have any political patronage,” she said.

NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande said Nitesh Rane’s statements were not a one-off incident, adding the rot runs deeper.

“Contempt cases should be filed against the Maharashtra government itself for violations of the Tehseen Poonawala judgment on mob lynching and hate speech. Enough is enough,” Gawande asserted.

The Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and the NCP (SP) are constituents of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The ruling Mahayuti coalition consists of the BJP, the NCP and the Shiv Sena. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

BJP leader and MLA Nitesh Rane on Monday requested Mumbai Police Commissioner to change the officer responsible for taking his statement in the ongoing probe into the Disha Salian death case.

In a post on X, Nitesh Rane said, “I have requested CP Mumbai to change the concerned officer who will take my statement in the Disha Salian case. I have reservations abt his background n who he is in touch with, according to my sources. CP has assured me he will change and let me know.”

I have requested CP Mumbai to change the concerned officer who will take my statement in the Disha Salian case.
I have reservations abt his background n who he is in touch with according to my sources.
CP has assured me he will change and let me know.

— Nitesh Rane (@NiteshNRane) July 15, 2024

Earlier, Mumbai Police sent a notice to Rane to appear before it on July 12 at Malvani Police Station in connection with the case.

“I have just received the summons and I have been saying this since day one that this is a case of murder. I am ready to cooperate with the Mumbai Police. The MVA government wanted to do a cover-up and save Aditya Thackeray and his other friends…Whatever information I have, I am ready to give it to the police,” Nitish Rane had said.

The case pertains to the death of Disha Salian, the ex-manager of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead in 2020. Notably, Rane had claimed that Disha was murdered.

Disha was found dead on June 8, 2020, days before Sushant was found hanging in his flat in suburban Bandra, Mumbai.

The Mumbai Police, last year, formed a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the death of Disha Salian.

Mumbai Police had registered an accidental death case in the matter.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)