Hanuman Chalisa Row: No Relief For Navneet And Ravi Rana, Bail Plea Hearing On April 29

The Mumbai sessions court has asked the Special Public Prosecutor to submit its reply by the date of the scheduled hearing. 

MP Navneet Rana at Santacruz Station, after she along with her husband Ravi Rana were arrested for promoting enmity between different groups on Saturday, in Mumbai

Source : PTI

New Delhi: The Mumbai session court will now hear the bail plea filed by Amravati MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana on April 29 in the Hanuman Chalisa row. The Court has asked the Special Public Prosecutor to submit its reply by the date of the scheduled hearing. 

After the Court's order, Rizwan Merchant, the advocate of the Rana couple said to ANI, "The court has a lot of workload, so we have accepted the bail application's reply for April 29, after which the court will decide further hearing; it can happen on April 29 & later as well."

On Monday, Merchant had withdrawn their bail plea pending before the Bandra magistrate court that had remanded them to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday, a day after their arrest.

The lawmaker couple is seeking a  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 Thackeray's private residence.

Merchant said the suburban Khar police had initially booked the Ranas on the charge of promoting enmity between different groups. At the time of their remand, the police had informed the magistrate court that they had added the charge of sedition against the couple in the first FIR.

He said the charge of sedition under 124 A of the Indian Penal Code carried a minimum sentence of seven years and a maximum punishment of life term. Therefore, bail for an offence of sedition was outside the jurisdiction of the magistrate court.

Therefore, the Ranas decided to withdraw the previous application (pending in the magistrate court) and filed a fresh bail plea before the sessions court, Merchant said.

The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by lawmaker couple Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana, arrested under various charges in connection with the Hanuman Chalisa controversy, seeking that one of the two FIRs registered against them under section 353 of the IPC be quashed.