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Journalism of Courage
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted Union Minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane a two-week protection from arrest while hearing his plea to quash an FIR registered against him in Dhule over his remark against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray made in August, 2021.
A division bench of Justices Prasanna B Varale and Shriram M Modak on Thursday had observed that Rane “certainly did not use words respectably” against Thackeray and suggested that Rane can make a statement that “bygones be bygones” to ensure “no wrong signal is given to people” and hoped that “better sense prevails”.
On August 23, 2021, Rane had said in Raigad that he would have slapped the chief minister for “not knowing how many years it has been since India gained independence”.
Besides Nashik, FIRs were registered against him at Mahad, Thane, Pune, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar. Rane was arrested on August 24, last year and later granted bail by the Mahad magistrate court.
Rane’s lawyers on Thursday requested that his pleas against Dhule Police and Nashik cyber police FIRs, arising out of the same cause of action – be tagged together and till then, interim relief be granted to him.
The HC asked the state’s lawyer to check with Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and inform on Friday if there was any harm in making a statement in the Dhule FIR-similar to the one it made last September in relation to the Nashik FIR- assuring Rane protection from coercive action till next hearing.
On Friday, the state’s lawyer refused to give an assurance of no coercive action against Rane pertaining to Dhule FIR, after which, the court granted interim protection from arrest to the BJP leader for two weeks.
HC is likely to hear Rane’s pleas against Nashik and Dhule FIRs together after two weeks.
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