Hanuman Chalisa row: Court order on bail plea of Rana couple now on May 4

Maharashtras MPMLA couple Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana arrested over the Hanuman Chalisa row will have to remain in jail at least for a few more days as a special court here on Monday said it will give its ruling on their bail plea on May 4Earlier special judge R N Rokade had reserved the order for Monday but the order couldnt be delivered as the court was busy with other matters and dictation of the bail order of Ranas was not completedThe judge said he will now pass the order on May 4Independent Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her MLAhusband Ravi Rana were arrested on April 23The couple had moved the court seeking bail in an FIR registered by the Mumbai Police against them on charges of sedition and promoting enmity following their public declaration of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays private residence Matoshree in suburban BandraOn Saturday both prosecution and defence completed their arguments on the bail applicationTheir bail plea said the call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree cannot be said to be aimed at promoting feelings of enmity or hatred among different group and this charge under IPC section 153A cannot be sustainedThere was no intention on the part of the applicants Ranas to instigate people or spread hatred by reciting the Hanuman Chalisa near the CMs private residence their plea saidIt is submitted that by no stretch of imagination can the acts of the Applicants be stated to constitute the offence of sedition the plea saidFurther the Mumbai Police had issued a notice to the couple under section 149 of the CrPC dealing with preventing cognizable offences and the applicants had complied with their direction and not stepped out of their residence it addedNavneet 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 outside Thackerays private residence citing the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mumbai for an eventThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever