Welcoming then Congress Satara district president Ranjitsinh Naik Nimbalkar into its fold in 2019, the BJP had thought it had found a way to breach Madha — the bastion of the undivided NCP led by Sharad Pawar.
The incident has come as a big blow to Nimbalkar, who was looking to reassert his leadership in the region during the upcoming local body polls after losing the Madha Lok Sabha seat to the NCP (SP)’s Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil by over 1 lakh votes in last year’s polls. For the BJP too, this is bad news as it was relying on Nimbalkar for a strong performance in the civic elections.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, visited Phaltan in Satara district on Sunday to personally gave Nimbalkar a clean chit. “These days, politics is mixed into everything. Ranjitdada (Nimbalkar) and (Phaltan MLA) Sachin Patil are being dragged into the issue for no reason. I would have not come to Phaltan if there was even an iota of doubt regarding their involvement,” he said, adding that the issue would be investigated and the guilty punished.
On October 23, a 28-year-old woman doctor, originally from Beed, was found dead, with a purported suicide note scribbled on her hand, in which she alleged sexual harassment and rape by police sub-inspector Gopal Badane and mental harassment by her landlord’s son Prashant Bankar. Both the accused have been arrested.
However, the BJP and Nimbalkar were dragged into the controversy after a letter, purportedly written earlier this year by the victim, alleged that two personal assistants of a “former MP” had “pressured her to alter medical reports” of a person arrested in a case.
Nimbalkar has denied all allegations. “It is horrible when baseless charges are levelled… I have two daughters. Why should I be afraid when I have done nothing wrong?” he has said.
Sharing portions of the purported letter written by the doctor on X, former Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve wrote, “In the letter, the doctor recommended hospital treatment for the accused, whose blood pressure was high. But, as mentioned in the letter, two personal assistants of Nimbalkar approached her and asked her to speak to the former MP. Nimbalkar told the doctor that the police were complaining that she was not declaring the accused fit as she hailed from Beed.” Danve also alleged that the FIR against the accused was filed by a private company belonging to the former MP.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also commented on the case, calling it “institutional murder”. “The very authority tasked with protecting the public from criminals committed the most heinous crime against this innocent woman — rape and exploitation. According to reports, some influential individuals associated with the BJP also attempted to pressure her into corruption. This is the most despicable example of a criminally protected ideology,” he wrote on X.
A few BJP leaders feel the party should try to contain the damage. Its Ashti MLA Suresh Dhas said if Nimbalkar or his aides’ involvement was proved, they should be punished. NCP leader and former minister Dhananjay Munde has called the doctor’s suicide “shocking and serious”, and demaned a Special Investigation Team probe the matter, while his cousin and BJP minister Pankaja Munde visited the doctor’s family. Beed is the Munde family turf.
Incidentally, Dhas and Dhananjay Munde had clashed earlier over the murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. Dhas’s criticism of the Mahayuti government’s handling of the case had finally led to Munde’s resignation as minister.
Who is Nimbalkar?
The son of former Shiv Sena Satara MP Hindurao Naik Nimbalkar, Ranjitsinh first won the Lok Sabha polls from Madha in 2019.
Though seen as the BJP’s first choice for the Madha seat in 2024, he faced opposition from within the party, with influential BJP leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patil insisting on a ticket for his nephew Dhairyasheel. The rift forced Fadnavis to personally intervene.
After the BJP went with Nimbalkar for the polls, Vijaysinh crossed over to the NCP(SP) with Dhairyasheel, who went on to win the Madha Lok Sabha seat.