MUMBAI: A special court today granted bail to independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana in the Matoshree-Hanuman chalisa Row case.
The Ranas were booked and arrested by Khar police station officials on April 23 for alleged offences of sedition and breach of harmony for declaring their intention to chant the hanuman chalisa outside Matoshree, the personal residence of Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, in Bandra (east).
The April 29 police reply arguing against bail for the Ranas cited media bytes allegedly given by the couple between April 20 and April 23 and said the words spoken prove their criticism and comments are neither within reasonable limits nor consistent with the fundamental right of freedom of expression. The plea said it has hence come within the ambit of Section 124A (sedition).
“The words by the accused are clearly with an intention to bring into hatred or contempt…against the government…to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of citizens,” the reply said.
The prosecution also cited 18 alleged offences registered against Ravi Rana and 7 against Navneet Rana.
The police reply submitted and argued by special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat also said the Ranas hatched an effective plan in a calculated manner. Police said the reading of ‘Shri Hanuman Chalisa,’ if opposed, “would arouse the religious feelings of Hindus as having been violated or alternatively, if allowed, it would hurt religious feelings of citizens of other religions as it would show that only Hinduism is preferred in this republic state”.
On April 25, the couple moved sessions court seeking bail through their advocate Rizwan Merchant. Their plea said the announcement to recite Hanuman Chalisa was made to enlist popular support and there was no intention to cause ill will or feelings of hatred.
Submitting that there was no intention to cause communal tension, the plea submitted before the sessions court said, “The government cannot afford to be hypersensitive, nor impervious to criticism…The call to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree cannot by any stretch of imagination be treated as an attempt to incite one community against another.”
It also said that on the directions of the present state mechanism, the police had applied the “draconian provision of 124A” (sedition)” only with the intention to suppress their freedom of speech and expression. “The offence is not disclosed against the applicants. By no stretch of imagination can the acts of the applicants be stated to constitute the offence of sedition. They did not intend to incite violence or cause any public disorder,” the bail plea said.