Booked for sedition, Ravi Rana and his wife sent to 14-day judicial custody

MUMBAI: Independent MLA Ravi Rana and his wife Amravati MP Navneet Rana were sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a holiday magistrate on Sunday, a day after their arrest following a high-voltage face-off with Shiv Sena over reciting the Hanuman Chalisa outside the Thackeray family’s home, Matoshree.

Khar police on Saturday had booked the Ranas under IPC Sections 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc), and 124A (sedition), besides provisions of the Bombay Police Act. A second FIR was filed against the Ranas on Sunday under IPC Section 353 for alleged assault of a public servant to prevent him/her from doing official duty.

The court rejected Mumbai police’s request for their custody for “maximum possible” time for further probe and their interrogation, not satisfied with the reasons cited. The couple then immediately applied for bail, which will be heard on April 29. Public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat has to file his reply by April 27 to the bail plea. This means, for five days, the Ranas would be in jail. Opposing the police custody plea, Ranas’ counsel Rizwan Merchant called the arrest



‘illegal’. He also questioned the invocation of IPC Section 124A for offence of sedition. He said nothing was uttered that would justify slapping a sedition charge on them.

The police, in its remand application, said the couple was aware of PM Modi’s visit to the city on Sunday. The remand application claimed that the couple was attempting to cause an “explosive situation” when tensions were already high over the issue of loudspeakers at mosques. They gave inflammatory media interviews and announced their plan to visit Matoshree and recite Hanuman Chalisa and actually came to Mumbai, said the remand. Merchant argued: “Chanting of Hanuman Chalisa doesn’t fit within the ambit of either Sections 153A or 124A in as much as it’s a way of praising Lord Ram in whom even the aggrieved party has faith... They should’ve joined the Ranas in jointly chanting the Hanuman Chalisa, instead of making a political issue out of it.”

Questioning the second FIR, Merchant said it was registered eight hours after returning to the police station after effecting their arrest. “Why wait? Why not register it with the first?” he asked.