COURT PUTS OFF ORDER ON RANA COUPLE’S BAIL PLEAS TO MAY 4

MUMBAI: The Mumbai sessions court on Monday postponed to May 4 the order on the bail pleas filed by Amravati MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana.

The couple was arrested on April 3 on charges of promoting enmity between groups and sedition, among others, for their insistence on chanting Hanuman Chalisa outside chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s residence Matoshree “to remind the Shiv Sena leader of his Hindutva roots.”

While Navneet is presently lodged i n Byculla women’s prison, Ravi Rana is lodged in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.

Arguing their bail pleas, senior advocate Abad Ponda and advocate Rizwan Merchant had contended that the two had no intention to spread hatred, as claimed by the police. They had said that “a citizen has a right to criticise the government so long as it does not incite violence. There is no chance of inciting violence by chanting Hanuman Chalisa.”

Referring to the complaint, the defence lawyers had said it was only the couple’s (Ranas) decision to go to Matoshree and with no supporters. “Violence against the state was never in their dream,” they had said.

Police had opposed their bail pleas. An affidavit filed by the Khar police had said the acts committed by the couple to incite violence in the name of religion and create a law-andorder situation were part of a larger conspiracy to get the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra dissolved. Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat had said that their arrest was very well justified and necessary, as they attempted to show the law and order had gone out of control of the state and as such the government was required to be dissolved.