Bombay High Court grants two week protection to Union Minister Narayan Rane in Dhule FIR

The Bombay High Court on Friday ordered that no coercive action be taken against Union Minister Narayan Rane for two weeks in connection with the first information report (FIR) registered against him by the Dhule Police for allegedly making derogatory statements against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.Rane was arrested in August last year over his remark wherein he had said that CM Thackeray should be slapped for not knowing how many years it has been since India got its independence.In all, 10 FIRs were registered against him in various districts of Maharashtra. While two FIRs were lodged at Nashik rural, one each were registered at Pune, Pune rural, Dhule, Mahad, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Thane and Nashik.The Nashik Police had made a statement on August 25, 2021 that no coercive action would be taken against Rane in relation to Nashik FIR.Advocates Satish Maneshinde with Aniket Nikam appearing for Rane prayed that a similar statement be made in the present FIR as well.A Bench of Justices PB Varale and SM Modak on Thursday asked the public prosecutor to get instructions if they could make statement of no coercive action against Rane. On Friday, when the matter was taken up, Additional Public Prosecutor Jayesh P Yagnik submitted that there were no instructions to make such a statement and that the court could pass appropriate directions. Accordingly the Bench proceeded to pass the order, granting protection to Rane for a period of 2 weeks. .In his petition, Rane stated that the Dhule Police issued a notice to him under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). This provision allows an investigating officer to issue a notice to an accused seeking his or her appearance before making an arrest."A notice has been issued by the concerned police station stating that the prosecution is going to file a chargesheet and thus I should remain present. It is important to note that before this notice, I was never summoned for investigation purposes by the police," Rane's plea stated.Rane further pointed out that there are multiple FIRs against him over the same remark and thus this is nothing but a brazen attempt to muzzle the freedom of speech guaranteed under the Constitution of India."The criticism of elected representatives in power, in howsoever strong words must be protected and cannot be a ground for initiating penal action, especially, when there isn't any intention to disturb public harmony. The petition further states that Rane's words must be judges with a standard of reasonable, strong-minded, firm and courageous men and not by those who are weak and those who scent danger in every hostile point of view," the plea stated.