Hanuman Chalisa row: Rana couple sent to judicial custody

Mumbai: Mumbai Police have slapped the sedition charge on the Independent lawmaker couple from east Maharashtra- MLA Ravi Rana and his MP wife Navneet Rana- whose earlier call for the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence had triggered angry protests by Shivsainiks. On Sunday, a Mumbai court remanded the politician couple in 14-day judicial custody, a day after they were arrested by the Mumbai Police on the charge of "creating enmity between different groups", rejecting the police's demand for their custody, an official said.

While Navneet Rana will be sent to the Byculla women's jail, her husband will be taken to the Arthur Road jail, the official said. "Charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 124-A (sedition) are made out against them as they had challenged the government machinery and made remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray," public prosecutor Pradip Gharat said. The court will hear their bail application on April 29, he added. Under Section 124A of IPC, the offence of sedition is committed when any person by words or otherwise brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law.

Speaking to reporters in Nashik, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil termed "appropriate" the arrest of the Rana couple.

Separately, police arrested 13 Shiv Sena workers on Sunday for allegedly protesting outside the Khar residence of the Ranas the previous day. The party workers were later released on bail, police said.

The city police on Saturday evening arrested Badnera MLA Ravi Rana and his wife Navneet Rana, the MP from Amravati in Maharashtra, for allegedly "creating enmity between different groups". The development came hours after the couple cancelled their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in Bandra amid stringent protests by Shiv Sena workers who laid siege to the Khar residence of the Ranas. The couple was produced before a court in Bandra on Sunday which sent them to judicial custody for 14 days, public prosecutor Gharat said.