Panaji, May 8 (Inditop) Goa Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane was Friday formally charged by the police for threatening to kill activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues.
The one paragraph charge sheet was filed by the the Goa Police in a court here only after Aires Rodrigues approached the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court claiming police inaction.
According to the charge sheet, Rane called Rodrigues on his mobile phone July 31, 2007, and threatened to kill him. Rane has been booked under section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
“This is Vishwajeet Rane. Be careful. I will get you shot,” the charge sheet quoted the minister as saying.
The minister’s father Pratapsingh Rane, was a four-term chief minister of Goa and is now the speaker of the state legislative assembly.
Aires was the spokesperson for NGO Utt Goenkara at the time of the incident.
Interestingly, the police have made Rane’s wife Divya Rane as a witness in the case as the call was made to Aires from her cell phone.
Rane is an Independent legislator and a close confidante of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who heads Congress-led alliance government.
