Navneet, Ravi Rana appear before court as police seek cancellation of bail over Hanuman Chalisa row

Mumbai, Jun 15: Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana on Wednesday appeared before a special court here in connection with the Mumbai Police's plea seeking cancellation of the couple's bail in the Hanuman Chalisa protest case.

The Ranas were arrested by the police in Mumbai on April 23 after they announced that they will recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra, leading to protests by Sena cadres.

Subsequently, the charge of sedition was invoked against the Ranas. On May 5, special Judge RN Rokade granted the Ranas bail with certain conditions, preventing them from making any statement related to the case to the media.

The judge had also said that the bail will be forfeited if the couple committed similar offences again. The police on May 9 approached the special court seeking that the bail of Navneet, the Independent MP from Amravati, and Ravi Rana, Independent MLA from the same district, be cancelled as they had allegedly violated the bail conditions. The couple then filed a joint reply to the police's plea and said they had neither interfered with the police probe nor had they made any public statements related to the case.

They also said the police had failed to give a "cogent reason" for seeking cancellation of their bail. The special court Wednesday adjourned the hearing on the police's plea to June 27.

PTI