‘Slap Uddhav’ remark: Narayan Rane moves Bombay HC for quashing of FIRs, protection from arrest

The bench, however, said that mentioning of the plea was not allowed and that the petitioner was required to follow proper “procedure under law” to get the matter listed for hearing.

Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member Narayan Rane Tuesday approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of multiple FIRs registered for his remark against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Raigad district. Rane has challenged the three FIRs, one each registered in Mahad (Raigad), Pune and Nashik, and has also sought protection from coercive action, including arrest, pending hearing of the plea.

Rane was, however, arrested in the afternoon at Sangameshwar in Ratnagiri by a Nashik city police team.

Before a division bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice NJ Jamadar on Tuesday, Rane submitted that action on the basis of the FIR was being taken against him in an “’arbitrary” manner, while a formal notice under Section 41A (notice for appearance before police officer) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was not issued against him.

Advocate Aniket Nikam for Rane submitted that the action was taken against him on FIR in ‘arbitrary’ manner, while it was required to issue notice to Rane under section 41A (Notice for appearance before Police officer) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for the offences having punishment less than 7-year imprisonment.

However, such a notice was not issued and, therefore, action by Sangameshwar Police, Ratnagiri district is “illegal”, Nikam said.

After Rane’s submission, the Bench said that mentioning of the plea was not allowed and that the petitioner was required to follow proper “procedure under law” to file to get the matter listed for hearing. “Please do not make us do the job of the registry,” the Bench added.

The Bombay High Court will hear the plea in due course.

During his speech on Monday evening at a hall in Mahad city in Raigad, Rane had said, “It is shameful that the chief minister does not know the year of independence. He leaned back to enquire about the count of years of independence during his speech. Had I been there, I would have given (him) a tight slap.”

An FIR has been registered by Mahad’s Yuva Sena party leader Siddhesh Patekar against Rane under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 159 (commit an affray), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 505 (public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. A FIR with similar sections has been registered by Nashik city’s cyber police unit and by Pune Police as well.

Apart from these three FIRs, as many as 46 FIRs are registered against Rane’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra where political campaigning was done by the minister amid the pandemic violating the social distancing norms. Of the 46 FIRs, 39 were registered in Mumbai and the remaining under Mira- Bhayandar Vasai-Virar police.

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