Mumbai: MP Navneet Rana at Santacruz Station, after she along with her husband Ravi Rana was arrested
Highlights
- An FIR was registered against the Rana couple by Mumbai Police on charges of sedition
- The Rana couple were also charged for promoting enmity
- They had announced they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s residence
Mumbai sessions court is likely to hear the bail plea of jailed Independent MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana on Tuesday, against the FIR registered by Mumbai Police on charges of sedition. The Rana couple were also charged for promoting enmity following their public declaration of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence.
Their counsel Rizwan Merchant said that the couple had decided to withdraw their bail plea pending before the Bandra magistrate court that had remanded them to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday, a day after their arrest.
Merchant said the suburban Khar police had initially booked the Ranas on the charge of promoting enmity between different groups. At the time of their remand, the police had informed the magistrate court that they had added the charge of sedition against the couple in the first FIR.
He said the charge of sedition under 124 A of the Indian Penal Code carried a minimum sentence of seven years and a maximum punishment of life term.
Therefore, bail for an offense of sedition was outside the jurisdiction of the magistrate court.
Hence, the Ranas decided to withdraw the previous application (pending in the magistrate court) and filed a fresh bail plea before the sessions court, Merchant said.
The magistrate court had scheduled the bail hearing for April 29.
Navneet Rana, the Lok Sabha MP from Amravati in eastern Maharashtra, and Ravi Rana, the MLA from Badnera, had eventually dropped their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa (hymns dedicated to Lord Hanuman) on Saturday outside Thackeray’s private residence in suburban Bandra, citing the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mumbai for an event.
(With inputs from PTI)
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