The Supreme Court not only decided that the nearly 12 hectares of reserved forest land in Kondhwa, near Pune, diverted for agricultural purposes and later for construction in 1998-99, was “totally illegal” but also left Narayan Rane with no place to hide. Rane, a former chief minister of Maharashtra and minister in the Narendra Modi government, who hopped from his native Shiv Sena to Congress before switching over to the Bharatiya Janata Party, has become the latest millstone around the neck of the ruling party—yet another corrupt leader in its once-pristine ranks. Rane, then revenue minister in Maharashtra, along with the then Pune divisional commissioner, “acted totally in breach of public trust to illegally cause gain........

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