Hanuman Chalisa row: Rana couple face sedition charges, get 14 days' judicial remand

Navneet Rana at Santacruz police station for medical check up. Pic/Shadab Khan

In a huge setback for independent MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana, the Mumbai Police slapped sedition charges on them even as Bandra Magistrate Court sent them to 14 days' judicial custody.

Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat said the court also declined urgent hearing to the Ranas' bail application which will now come up only next Friday (April 29).

The Ranas' lawyer Rizwan Merchant termed the police case as 'fake' and said that certain charges were added later on under pressure. He termed all the charges against them as baseless since the couple had not flouted the laws as contended.

He also accused the police of filing two different FIRs with enhanced charges like IPC Section 124(A), pertaining to sedition, but claimed that this was not mentioned in the remand plea and the government lawyers failed to explain this charge before the court.

Soon after the court verdict, the couple stepped out with disappointment written on their faces, Navneet Rana is likely to be taken to the Byculla Women's Jail and Ravi Rana may be lodged in the Arthur Road Central Jail.

Even as Ravi Rana claimed they are being framed in false cases by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the couple's lawyers are expected to file a fresh plea for bail before a regular court on Monday.

The Rana couple was served prohibitory notices, detained, then whisked off by Khar Police Station team and arrested late on Saturday after two-days of high-voltage drama in which they threatened to march to the private residence of the Chief Minister and chant 'Hanuman Chalisa', but were prevented by hundreds of aggressive Shiv Sainiks and the police.

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