News Analysis India

Tag: Hanuman Chalisa row

  • Hanuman Chalisa row: Navneet Rana appears before privileges committee, names Maharashtra CM 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Independent MP Navneet Rana, who has alleged she was illegally arrested and inhumanly treated at a police station in Mumbai, appeared before a parliamentary privileges committee on Monday to present her case and seek “justice”.

    Navneet had recently moved the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee with her complaint and the panel had called her to appear before it.

    “I presented my case before the committee and shared all the details with them…and how I was mistreated and casteist remarks were hurled against me. I have taken names of all — from the Maharashtra chief minister to the Mumbai police commissioner,” she told reporters after the meeting.

    “I have sought justice from the committee,” she added.

    Sources said now the committee may call top Mumbai Police officials over the complaint.

    Navneet, the MP from Amravati in Maharashtra, and her MLA-husband Ravi Rana were arrested on April 23 by the Mumbai Police after the couple announced they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai, which had angered Shiv Sena workers, Thackeray’s party, leading to tension.

    The couple was granted bail on May 4 by a special Mumbai court.

    They walked out of jail on May 5.

  • Hanuman Chalisa row: Mumbai police files plea seeking cancellation of Rana couple’s bail 

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Mumbai police on Monday filed an application in a special court here seeking cancellation of the bail granted to independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA-husband Ravi Rana, accused in a sedition case following a row over the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa.

    The police sought that the couple’s bail be cancelled on the ground that they had allegedly violated one of the conditions imposed by the special court while granting them bail last week.

    Navneet Rana, the Lok Sabha member from Amravati in Maharashtra, and her husband Ravi Rana, the legislator from Badnera in Amravati, were arrested by the Mumbai police on April 23 after they announced that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ in Bandra area here.

    They were booked on charges of sedition and prompting enmity between different groups.

    The special court had on May 4 granted bail to the couple and imposed some conditions on them, including not to indulge in a similar offence and not to speak to the media.

    On Monday, the suburban Khar police filed an application through special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat, seeking that the court cancel the couple’s bail as they had allegedly violated the condition of not speaking to the media.

    “The accused persons (Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana) have given interviews to media since their release and hence, flouted the condition imposed by the special court while granting them bail.

    We are seeking for the bail to be cancelled and a warrant to be issued to the accused and they be taken in custody forthwith,” Gharat said.

  • Hanuman Chalisa row: Bail plea of Rana couple likely to be decided on May 2 

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: A special court here is likely to decide the bail plea of jailed Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana on May 2.

    The couple had moved court seeking bail in an FIR registered by Mumbai police under provisions related to sedition and promoting enmity following their plan to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence here.

    On Saturday, both prosecution and defence completed their arguments, after which Special Judge RN Rokade reserved the order for Monday.

    The bail plea of the legislator couple contended that a call to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside ‘Matoshree’, the CM’s private residence in Bandra East, cannot be said to be calculated to promote feelings of enmity or hatred.

    It also said the charge under section 153(A) cannot be sustained, adding that there was no intention on the part of the applicants to instigate or create hatred by reciting Hanuman Chalisa near the CM’s private home.

    Their bail plea also claimed that by no stretch of imagination can the acts of the applicants be stated to constitute the offence of sedition.

    It added that Mumbai police had issued notice under section 149 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the applicant had complied with it and had not stepped out of her residence.

    Amravati Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana, who is MLA from Badnera, had eventually dropped their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree on April 23 citing the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mumbai for an award ceremony the next day. 

  • Maharashtra MP, MLA couple arrested over Hanuman Chalis row shifted to separate Mumbai jails

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police have shifted independent MP Navneet Rana to the Byculla women’s jail here, while her MLA husband Ravi Rana was taken to Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai amid tight security, an official said on Monday.

    The couple was arrested on Saturday after they gave a call for the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai, which had triggered angry protests by Shiv Sainiks.

    The Mumbai Police later slapped the sedition charge on the politician couple.

    On Sunday, a Mumbai court remanded the Rana couple in 14-day judicial custody.

    Subsequently, Navneet Rana, the MP from Amravati in Maharashtra, was late Sunday night taken to the Byculla women’s jail.

    Her husband Ravi Rana, the MLA from Badnera in Amravati, was first taken to the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, but due to lack of adequate space there, he was taken to the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai after completion of the legal formalities, the official said.

    Earlier, a case was registered against Ranas under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and sections 37(1) and 135 of the Bombay Police Act.

    Later, the police also added IPC Section 124-A (sedition) in the case against them.

    Under IPC Section 124-A, the offence of sedition is committed when any person by words or otherwise brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law.

    The police had also registered another FIR against Ranas for allegedly obstructing police from performing their duty and resisting arrest at their residence in suburban Khar, the official said.

    Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had on Sunday termed “appropriate” the arrest of the Rana couple.

    The police had also arrested 13 Shiv Sena workers on Sunday for allegedly protesting outside the Khar residence of Ranas on Saturday.

    The party workers were later released on bail, police earlier said.