Amid allegations by politician-couple Ravi Rana and Navneet Kaur Rana of mistreatment in the police station, Mumbai Police chief Sanjay Pandey broke his silence on Tuesday and tweeted a video of them drinking tea in the Khar police station.
The Maharashtra government also reiterated that the allegations of mistreatment were baseless.
Navneet Kaur Rana, who is an MP from Amravati (SC) seat, has in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has claimed that the faced casteist-slur in the police station and the officials there denied her water and also did not allow to use the wash-room.
Maharashtra’s Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis too has claimed that the couple were mistreated in the police custody.
“Do we say anything more…,” Pandey wrote and tweeted a video of the duo sitting in the police station drinking tea and glasses of water being kept on the table.
Do we say anything more pic.twitter.com/GuUxldBKD5
— Sanjay Pandey (@sanjayp_1) April 26, 2022
The couple are now in jails after being granted judicial custody by the Bandra Magistrate’s court.
Meanwhile, the lawyer of the couple Rizwan Merchant said: “The police Commissioner should also tweet the unedited video of the Santacruz police station.”
The Maha Vikas Aghadi government and the three parties - Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress denied the allegations.
“The reality was very different from the allegations,” state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil said.
“We have been saying that the allegations are false. Now the police chief himself has tweeted the video…he should be thanked….the Mr and Mrs Bunty and Babli MLA-MP couple has been making baseless allegations,” said Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut.
Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari lauded the Lok Sabha Speaker for taking serious cognisance of Navneet Kaur-Rana’s letter and asking for a report from the Maha Vikas Aghadi government within 24 hours. “Wish he had shown the same concern for the Dadra & Nagar Haveli MP, Mohan Delkar, who complained to him and finally died by suicide,” Tiwari said.
“We want to know from the Lok Sabha Speaker what kind of action will be taken against his own MPs who try to subdue the police with fake statements by making herself a ‘caste-victim’ in this manner,” NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase asked.Congress state General Secretary Sachin Sawant said: “The entire move is to discredit the MVA government and Mumbai Police but their allegations have been proved false and fallen flat on them.”
In a related development, the couple failed to get any relief yet again - and the Mumbai City Civil & Sessions Court which posted their bail application on 29 April.
Merchant moved the bail application, however, the court on Tuesday asked the prosecution to file its reply on 29 April and decided to hear the application on that day.
On Sunday, the duo were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the Bandra Magistrate’s Court, where they also filed a bail plea.
On Monday, they decided to withdraw the bail plea and approach the Mumbai Sessions Court.
In their bail plea, Merchant has contended that the call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside ‘Matoshree’, the private residence of Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, was not a calculated move to promote feelings of enmity or hatred and the charge under section 153(A) cannot be sustained.
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