'Slap Uddhav' row: Narayan Rane approaches Bombay HC against FIRs; seeks protection from arrest

Union minister Narayan Rane approached the Bombay High Court on Tuesday challenging the FIRs registered against him in parts of Maharashtra over his remarks against state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and sought protection from arrestRanes petition filed through advocate Aniket Nikam sought the FIRs to be quashedThe BJP leader also sought an interim order granting him protection from arrest or any coercive actionThe petition was mentioned before a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar seeking urgent hearing on Tuesday itselfAlso Read Narayan Ranes lsquoslap Uddhavrsquo remark BJP Shiv Sena workers clash in MumbaiThe bench however refused to hear it and said mentioning of the petition was not allowed and asked the lawyer to follow the procedure File an application before the Registry department seeking urgent hearing and then we will consider the court saidEveryone has to go through the process Dont make us do the job of the Registry the HC saidThe petition has challenged three FIRs lodged against Rane in Pune Nashik and Mahad in RaigadNikam said the police had not followed the procedure laid down in law before taking steps to arrest RaneSummons under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure has not been issued Nikam saidUnder this section the police in cases where arrest is not required can issue summons to the person for questioningEarlier in the day Rane approached a sessions court n Ratnagiri seeking prearrest bailThe sessions court however refused to grant any relief noting that the case was registered in Nashik and hence it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the applicationRane had sparked off a row over his remarks about slapping Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for what he claimed as the latters ignorance of the year of Indias independenceIt 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 Rane said during his Jan Ashirwad Yatra in Raigad district on MondayThe BJP leader and former Shiv Sena chief minister claimed Thackeray forgot the year of independence during his August 15 address to the people of the state Thackeray had to check the year of independence with his aides midway during the speech that day Rane saidFollowing his remarks a complaint was lodged against Rane by Nashik city Shiv Sena unit chief at the Cyber police station thereBased on the complaint an FIR was registered against Rane in Nashik under IPC sections 500 defamation 5052 mischief 153B 1c remarks likely to cause disharmony or feeling of enmity or hatred or illwill a police official saidNashik Police Commissioner Deepak Pandey on Tuesday issued orders for the immediate arrest of Rane after an FIR was registered against him in the north Maharashtra city over his remarks against the CMThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever