Hanuman Chalisa row: Rana couple gets bail

The court warned the couple against repeating their actions or else their bail will be cancelled while restraining them from making media statements about the case

MUMBAI: A sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday granted bail to Member of Parliament Navneet Rana and her husband, legislator Ravi Rana, days after they were on April 23 booked for promoting enmity and sedition.

Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana. (ANI)

The couple was booked for their insistence on chanting Hanuman Chalisa outside chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s residence “to remind the Shiv Sena leader of his Hindutva roots.”

The court warned the couple against repeating their actions or else their bail will be cancelled. It also restrained them from making media statements about the case.

The couple’s lawyers Abad Ponda and advocate Rizwan Merchant contended their clients had no intention to spread hatred. They argued as citizens, they have the right to criticise the government as long as it does not incite violence. The lawyers said there was no chance of inciting violence by chanting Hanuman Chalisa.

In their affidavit, police said the acts by the couple to incite violence in the name of religion and to create a law-and-order situation were part of a larger conspiracy to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said their arrest was justified and necessary as they attempted to show the law-and-order situation in the state was out of control of the government and as such the government was required to be dissolved.