Hanuman Chalisa row: Lawmaker couple moves HC seeking quashing of FIR

The couple sought setting aside an FIR registered against them under IPC section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty).

A bench led by Justice Prasanna B Varale has posted hearing in the plea after 2:30 pm on Monday.

The Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai on Sunday sent Navneet Kaur-Rana, who is an MP, and Ravi, an MLA, to judicial custody for 14 days, rejecting the police’s plea for custody in connection with FIR through which the Mumbai police invoked sedition charges against them.

The couple was arrested Saturday night after they announced they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s residence, triggering protests in the city, and outside their residence by Shiv Sainiks. It was MNS chief Raj Thackeray who had initially called for Hanuman Chalisa recitals in public if mosques used loudspeakers for azaan.

Police said an FIR under multiple sections of the IPC, including 124 (sedition) A and 153A (promoting enmity), and the Bombay Police Act was filed against the lawmaker couple. They also face another FIR under IPC section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty).

Police, in their remand application, cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the city while asking for maximum custody. They said it has to be investigated whether there was “any big plot or conspiracy of the couple or others to create any major law and order situation in Kalanagar area, Mumbai or all over Maharashtra”.

They also said the couple had created a communal rift and destabilised law and order amid the demand by political parties for removal of loudspeakers from mosques.