Sessions Court says police don’t have grounds for sedition charge in Ranas’ arrest

The Mumbai City Civil & Sessions Court, which granted bail to the Ranas—MP Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana—who were arrested on charges of sedition, stated that the Mumbai Police did not have sufficient ground to invoke said charges.

Special Judge Rahul Rokde observed in the reasoned order, which was made available on Friday: “…neither the applicants called anyone to bear arms, nor any violence was incited in general as a result of the speech delivered by the applicants. In view of the matter, I am of the considered view that prima facie, decisive ingredients of section 124 A of the IPC are not made out at this stage.”

The case has reignited the debate over section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with sedition.

Ravi Rana, the three-time MLA from Badnera, and his wife Navneet Kaur Rana, Member of the Lok Sabha from Amravati, were granted bail by Judge Rokde on Wednesday.

The couple were arrested on April 23, for threatening to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree — private residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister, and Shiv Sena leader, Uddhav Thackeray. They soon withdrew the threat, but it still led to massive — which turned violent in certain places — protests across Mumbai.

The court, however, also stated that the couple had crossed a line with their freedom of expression by making such a threat.

“Undoubtedly, the applicants have crossed the lines of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution. However, mere expression of derogatory or objectionable words may not be a sufficient ground for invoking the provisions contained in section 124A of IPC,” the judge observed in his ruling.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, said: “The court has exposed the draconian and undemocratic policies and actions of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to shut down dissenting voices. Will the MVA now apologise for wrongly confining the public representatives?”

For his part, Ravi Rana said: “We would not be saying anything on the order of the court…we respect it.” But he stated that people had now seen how a woman was mistreated at the instance of the government.