Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her husband, MLA Ravi Rana, on Monday approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of an FIR filed against them. Reports said their petition was expected to be taken up on Monday.
The couple was arrested on Saturday for declaring they would chant Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. On Sunday, they were remanded to 14-days judicial custody by a magistrate court. Their lawyer had alleged the case against them was politically motivated.
The Shiv Sena, a constituent of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, had alleged the Rana couple were acting at the behest of the BJP.
In an editorial on Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, MP Sanjay Raut alleged Navneet Rana had previously opposed chanting of Jai Shri Ram slogans in Parliament in 2019. Republic reported Raut wrote “If they wanted to organise a Hanuman Chalisa event at the national level, they should have recited Hanuman Chalisa in front of the residence of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and PM [Narendra] Modi and the Union Home Minister. Hindutva is raging in Maharashtra. Because Uddhav Thackeray is leading the state. Secondly, there is no ban on reciting Hanuman Chalisa in the state.”
Raut also pointed out that the Bombay High Court had previously invalidated the scheduled caste certificate of Navneet Rana on the grounds she had fraudulently obtained it.
