Congress MLA Nitesh Rane and his supporters were on Thursday caught on camera pouring buckets full of mud on a deputy engineer in Maharashtra.

Nitesh, the son of BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former chief minister Narayan Rane, and seven of his supporters have been arrested for the attack on deputy engineer Prakash Shedekar of the National Highways Authority of India at Kankavli in Sindhudurg district, police said.

Narayan Rane has apologised for his son’s conduct.

Nitesh, the MLA from Kankavli, over 300km from Mumbai, and his supporters were protesting after finding potholes and mud on the busy Mumbai-Goa highway that passes through the coastal district.

In the video clip that has gone viral on social media, Nitesh and his supporters, including Kankavli Municipal Council president Samir Nalawade, were purportedly seen tying Shedekar to the railing of a bridge and pouring buckets of mud on him.

“Every day the locals have to face such mud from passing vehicles... you also experience it,” Nitesh and Nalawade were heard telling Shedekar.

The MLA and his supporters have been booked under IPC Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 342 (wrongful confinement and 120B (criminal conspiracy), the official said.

A section of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act was also slapped on them, he said.

As the video of the incident went viral and caused an outrage, Narayan Rane apologised for his son’s misconduct. “I apologise for my son’s act of pouring mud on a government official. The protest (against poor condition of the highway) was for the local people,” the former chief minister said.

The incident comes close on the heels of BJP lawmaker Akash Vijayvargiya, the son of party veteran Kailash Vijayvargiya, hitting a civic official with a bat during a demolition drive in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on June 26. Akash had been arrested and is now out on bail.