Maharashtra’s MP-MLA couple Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana, arrested over the Hanuman Chalisa row, were on Wednesday granted conditional bail.

Independent Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her MLA-husband Ravi Rana were arrested on April 23 following their public declaration of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence Matoshree’ in suburban Bandra.

They had eventually dropped their plan citing the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mumbai for an event.

The couple had moved the court seeking bail in an FIR registered by the Mumbai Police against them on charges of sedition and promoting enmity.

The conditions of bail include that the couple shall not hamper investigation or influence witnesses, they should not commit a similar criminal offence that entails cancellation of bail and should furnish a surety of Rs 50,000 each. Apart from this, they are also restrained from speaking to the media.

On Saturday, both prosecution and defence completed their arguments on the bail application. Their bail plea said the call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside ‘Matoshree’ cannot be said to be aimed at promoting feelings of enmity or hatred among different groups and this charge under IPC section 153(A) cannot be sustained.

There was no intention on the part of the applicants (Ranas) to instigate people or spread hatred by reciting the Hanuman Chalisa near the CM’s private residence, their plea said.”It is submitted that by no stretch of imagination, can the acts of the Applicants be stated to constitute the offence of sedition,” the plea said.

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