Hanuman Chalisa row: Navneet Rana, husband move court, seek relief in police case

Navneet Rana, an independent MP from Amravati and her husband and Maharashtra MLA Ravi Rana, have approached the Bombay High Court, seeking relief in the case registered by the Mumbai Police against them in the Hanuman Chalisa row in 2022.

The plea will be heard by a bench of Justice Prakash Naik on Thursday.

An FIR was registered against Navneet Rana and her husband for allegedly preventing a public servant from doing their duty in 2022. The case against the Ranas was registered under sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It was alleged that the duo were resisting arrest and obstructing police personnel who had visited their Khar residence on April 23, 2022, after announcing that they would chant the Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

A case was registered in the Hanuman Chalisa row as well, but the Mumbai Police had not filed a chargesheet against the Ranas in that case. The couple were arrested and sent to jail for about a month in 2022.

The duo had filed an application seeking discharge from the case, which was rejected by special Sessions judge RN Rokde and the court is set to frame charges against them.

In the plea filed before the high court, the Ranas said the allegations against them were completely false and the FIR was registered belatedly, and the investigation was tainted.

The couple, in their plea filed through advocate Rizwan Merchant, said the police claimed that they went to arrest the duo for a case of Hanuman Chalisa when the duo allegedly manhandled policemen and hence, the case under Section 353 of the IPC was registered.

However, the Ranas have reasoned that the Khar police, in reality, had not registered any FIR when they came to arrest them and they were not discharging their official duty at their residence.

The couple claimed that the chargesheet filed against them was doctored and due to political pressure.