Mumbai: MP Navneet Rana along with her husband Ravi Rana arrested at Santacruz station
Highlight
- An FIR was registered against the Rana couple on charges of sedition by the Mumbai Police.
- The Rana couple was also accused of promoting enmity
- He had announced that he would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s residence.
A sessions court in Mumbai is likely to hear on Tuesday the bail plea of jailed Independent MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana against the FIR lodged by the Mumbai Police on charges of sedition. The Rana couple were also accused of promoting enmity after a public announcement of reciting Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence.
Their lawyer Rizwan Merchant said the couple had decided to withdraw their bail plea pending before the Bandra magistrate court, which sent them to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday, a day after their arrest.
Merchant said that the suburban Khar police had initially registered a case against Rana for promoting enmity between different groups. At the time of remand, the police had informed the magistrate court that they had added sedition charges against the couple in the first FIR.
He said that under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, there is a provision for a minimum punishment of seven years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the charge of sedition.
Therefore, bail for the offense of sedition was outside the jurisdiction of the magistrate’s court.
Therefore, Rana decided to withdraw the previous application (pending in the magistrate’s court) and filed a fresh bail application before the sessions court, Merchant said.
The magistrate court had fixed the bail hearing on April 29.
Lok Sabha MP from Amravati in eastern Maharashtra Navneet Rana and Badnera MLA Ravi Rana had finally dropped their plans to recite Hanuman Chalisa (hymn dedicated to Lord Hanuman) outside Thackeray’s private residence in suburban Bandra on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Mumbai for an event.
(with inputs from PTI)