‘Slap’ Thackeray remarks: Police to drop charges against Narayan Rane

In 2021, the BJP leader had claimed that Uddhav Thackeray, the Maharashtra chief minister at the time, had forgotten the year of India’s independence during his August 15 address to the people of the state

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Monday told the Bombay high court that it was filing a “C summary” or closure report in the case against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Narayan Rane for his allegedly provocative remarks in 2021 against then-chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Mumbai, India - Aug. 25, 2021:--------------------in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, August 25, 2021. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

A C Summary report is typically filed when the police are closing the investigation due to the lack of sufficient evidence to support either a prosecution or a false claim.

A division bench of justices Ravindra Gughe and Gautam Ankhad was hearing Rane’s plea for quashing various first information reports (FIRs) registered against him for remarks he had made during a press conference in August 2021. The BJP leader had claimed that Thackeray, the Maharashtra chief minister at the time, had forgotten the year of India’s independence during his August 15 address to the people of the state.

“It is shameful that the chief minister does not know the year of independence. He leaned back to enquire about the count of years of independence during his speech. Had I been there, I would have given a tight slap,” Rane, a Union minister at the time, had allegedly said during an event in Raigad.

Following the remarks, FIRs were registered against Rane in Mahad, Nashik, Thane, and Pune for endangering harmony, criminal intimidation, provoking breach of peace, and threatening injury to a public servant. The BJP leader was also arrested by the Nashik police but managed to get bail the same day.

Senior advocate Satish Maneshinde, who represented Rane, said that a magisterial court had also discharged the BJP leader in April 2023 in a related FIR. While discharging Rane, the chief judicial magistrate, Raigad, had observed that the remarks did not amount to “a concrete or immediate threat in the form of criminal intimidation”. However, it added, “The statement made by the accused can be said as controversial and politically insensitive, which is not expected from a person who holds the post of Union minister.”

On Monday, prosecutor Jayesh Yagnik told the high court, “I have communication from the Navpada police station, Thane, and the Chatushrungi police station, Pune. Navpada had already filed a C summary; Chatushrungi is in the process and will file it after obtaining the requisite permission.”