Ex-council chief gets two-year rigorous imprisonment

AURANGABAD: Former president of the Kinwat Municipal Council and another person have been sentenced on Friday to two years of rigorous imprisonment by a Nanded court for assaulting Naval Kishor Ram, an IAS officer, in 2010. Presently Ram is posted as the district collector of Beed.
District judge Girish Gurav acquitted other accused for want of evidence, said Prakash Tompe, who represented the one who got acquittal.
Ram, who was the assistant distrct collector, also had the charge of the chief executive officer of the Kinwat Municipal Council. NCP leader Arun Laxmanrao Alne was the municipal council president.
According to the prosecution, on January 29, 2010, Ram had lodged a complaint with the Kinwat police station saying that while he was working in his office, Alne, another accused Rahul Gautam Kapse, and around 20 others barged into the office and questioned him why he had stopped work of the Buddha temple in the town. They used harsh language. The accused threw a table glass at him and also hit with a stone. Ram had fallen unconscious following the assault.
Subsequently, Alne, Kapse and others were booked under various sections of the IPC, including 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (obstructing a government servant from performing his duties) criminal intimidation, rioting and for causing losses to the public property. Inspector Suresh Pardhi investigated the matter, arrested 15 people, including Alne (43) and Kapse (27), and submitted a charge sheet.
The prosecution examined five witnesses and Ram’s statement too was recorded. District judge Gurav sentenced both Alne and Kapse to two years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 353 and fined Rs 7,000 each. They have also been sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment under section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon) and were fined Rs 5,000 each. The convicts would have to undergo these sentences concurrently.