No coercive action against Narayan Rane till September 30: Maha govt to HC

After the Maha govt assured that no coercive action will be taken against Narayan Rane till September 30, the court directed him to file separate petitions instead of one.

The Bombay high court (HC) has asked Union minister Narayan Rane to file separate petitions to challenge the various first information reports (FIRs) registered against him across different cities regarding his remarks against Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on August 23.

The Bombay high court (HC) has asked Union minister Narayan Rane to file separate petitions to challenge the various first information reports (FIRs) registered against him across different cities regarding his remarks against Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on August 23. (Hindustan Times)

Rane had filed a petition seeking the quashing of FIR by the Nashik Cyber police and had sought to include other cases registered at Mahad, Thane, Pune, Ahmednagar and Jalgaon in the plea as well.

However on Friday, after the state government assured that no coercive action will be taken against Rane till September 30, the court directed him to file separate petitions instead of one.

The division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar, while hearing Rane’s petition, was informed by senior counsel Ashok Mundargi and advocate Aniket Nikam that the Rajya Sabha member has amended the plea and had included details of all six FIRs registered against him.

In the earlier hearing, after the state had given an assurance that it would not take coercive action against Rane with regards to the FIR registered at Nashik, the minister had sought similar assurances regarding other cases as well so that he could amend the petition and add details of the other FIRs.

On Friday, after the court was told that details of all FIRs had been included in the petition, the court said, “The FIRs are of different police stations of different jurisdictions. Let the challenge to each of the FIR be in separate petitions. It will be more convenient for prosecution in taking instructions from each police station.”

When the bench added that all petitions would be tagged and heard together, Mundargi agreed but sought a blanket interim protection in all FIRs till the petitions were filed.

Additional public prosecutor JP Yagnik for the state government informed the bench that after the petitioner had assured of cooperating with the Nashik Police on August 25, the state had assured that it would not take any coercive steps against Rane till the next date of hearing. However, as he has been asked to appear before Nashik Police on September 25, the state was willing to extend its assurance.

Rane has been issued a notice under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) by Nashik Police which Mundargi said he will do through videoconference on September 25.

While speaking at a press meet on August 23, the Union minister, who was on Jan Ashirwad Yatra, had stated that he would have slapped CM for “not knowing the year of India’s Independence.” A day later, he was arrested and granted bail by the Mahad magistrate court.

When Rane moved HC on August 25 stating that the Nashik Police commissioner was working under pressure from the ruling party (Shiv Sena), senior advocate Amit Desai for the state had informed the court that no coercive action would be taken against Rane in the FIR. However, in response to Rane’s claim that multiple FIRs were lodged against him with the only intention to “harass him by launching a false prosecution”, Desai had refused to make a blanket statement of protection in all FIRs as there were no details of those.

Rane had challenged the Nashik Cyber police FIR under Sections 153 (B) (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 500 (criminal defamation), 505 (2) (intent to incite) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among others.

The petitions will come up for hearing on September 30.