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Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ganesh Naik is in trouble after a rape case was registered against him following a complaint filed by a woman who claimed to have been in a live-in relationship with him for the past 27 years. The Nerul police has registered a case under section 376 (2)(N) on Saturday after the woman alleged that between April 2010 and September 2017 he had raped her. This is the second case registered against Naik in the last three days.
On April 16, CBD Belapur police booked him for threatening the same woman with a revolver and asking her to keep their relationship a secret. The woman has claimed that she has a 15-year-old son with him.
Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) chairperson Rupali Chakankar on Monday said that Naik would be arrested for investigation. “The complainant personally met me and had filed a detailed complaint against Ganesh Naik. Following this, MSCW directed the Navi Mumbai police to submit a report in the next 48 hours. On April 15, a case under section 506B of IPC and the next day Naik was booked under section 376 (2) of IPC. As both the cases are serious Naik will be arrested for probe,” Chakankar said.
Naik (71) has been dominating the political circles in Navi Mumbai for two decades now. Ahead of the state Assembly elections, he joined BJP in 2019 and was elected as an MLA from the Airoli constituency in Navi Mumbai.
His defection was seen as a big jolt to the Sharad Pawar-led NCP as almost the entire unit of 42 NCP corporators of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) defected along with him. He was with NCP since 1999 and was made a minister in the successive Congress-NCP coalition government between 2004 and 2014.
Before that, Naik was with Shiv Sena. He shot to prominence after he was made Sena group leader in the state Assembly following the defection of Chhagan Bhujbal to the Congress in 1991.
A resourceful and influential leader, Naik was seen as a chief ministerial contender in the run-up to the 1995 state Assembly elections. In 1998, he had differences with then Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and floated his separate outfit and contested the 1999 assembly polls but lost before joining NCP.
Currently, Naik is said upset with the BJP for being “sidelined”. He was looking to return to Sena and was in touch with the party Sena leadership but talks did not materialize as his induction was opposed by Eknath Shinde, urban development minister, who is also the guardian minister of Thane district, said a Sena insider, requesting anonymity.
Naik was not available for comment.
As Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections are scheduled to be held in the coming months, the ruling partners of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi — Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress — have decided to corner the Naik and the BJP, who is ruling the civic body at present, by holding an alliance for the polls.
Naik is the fifth BJP leader in Maharashtra who is facing investigation under different charges after union minister Narayan Rane, his son and MLA Nitesh Rane, leader of opposition Pravin Darekar and BJP leader Kirit Somaiya.
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