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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

YouTuber challenges FIR, LoC in HC

Mumbai : The Bombay High Court issued notice to the state government on a petition filed by UK-based medico and YouTuber, Dr. Sangram Patil, seeking to quash a Mumbai Police FIR and revoking a Look Out Circular in a criminal case lodged against him, on Thursday.   Justice Ashwin D. Bhobe, who heard the matter with preliminary submissions from both sides, sought a response from the state government and posted the matter for Feb. 4.   Maharashtra Advocate-General Milind Sathe informed the court...

YouTuber challenges FIR, LoC in HC

Mumbai : The Bombay High Court issued notice to the state government on a petition filed by UK-based medico and YouTuber, Dr. Sangram Patil, seeking to quash a Mumbai Police FIR and revoking a Look Out Circular in a criminal case lodged against him, on Thursday.   Justice Ashwin D. Bhobe, who heard the matter with preliminary submissions from both sides, sought a response from the state government and posted the matter for Feb. 4.   Maharashtra Advocate-General Milind Sathe informed the court that the state would file its reply within a week in the matter.   Indian-origin Dr. Patil, hailing from Jalgaon, is facing a criminal case here for posting allegedly objectionable content involving Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on social media.   After his posts on a FB page, ‘Shehar Vikas Aghadi’, a Mumbai BJP media cell functionary lodged a criminal complaint following which the NM Joshi Marg Police registered a FIR (Dec. 18, 2025) and subsequently issued a LoC against Dr. Patil, restricting his travels.   The complainant Nikhil Bhamre filed the complaint in December 2025, contending that Dr. Patil on Dec. 14 posted offensive content intended to spread ‘disinformation and falsehoods’ about the BJP and its leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.   Among others, the police invoked BNSS Sec. 353(2) that attracts a 3-year jail term for publishing or circulating statements or rumours through electronic media with intent to promote enmity or hatred between communities.   Based on the FIR, Dr. Patil was detained and questioned for 15 hours when he arrived with his wife from London at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (Jan. 10), and again prevented from returning to Manchester, UK on Jan. 19 in view of the ongoing investigations.   On Wednesday (Jan. 21) Dr. Patil recorded his statement before the Mumbai Police and now he has moved the high court. Besides seeking quashing of the FIR and the LoC, he has sought removal of his name from the database imposing restrictions on his international travels.   Through his Senior Advocate Sudeep Pasbola, the medico has sought interim relief in the form of a stay on further probe by Crime Branch-III and coercive action, restraint on filing any charge-sheet during the pendency of the petition and permission to go back to the UK.   Pasbola submitted to the court that Dr. Patil had voluntarily travelled from the UK to India and was unaware of the FIR when he landed here. Sathe argued that Patil had appeared in connection with other posts and was not fully cooperating with the investigators.

Deep Discontent in Congress, candidate calls Patole RSS agent

Updated: Dec 2, 2024

RSS

Mumbai: All is not well in the state Congress after the debacle in the assembly election. Bunty Shelke, a Congress candidate who lost from Nagpur Central constituency, has accused state Congress chief Nana Patole of secretly working for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP’s ideologue.


Shelke accused Patole of conspiring against him and blamed him for his defeat. Shelke lost the poll in a close contest with BJP candidate Pravin Datke, by 11,632 votes. Speaking to reporters, Shelke said, “Nana is a RSS agent and destroyed the party. It is because of him that Congress slipped to fifth position in the state. In my constituency he had directed the local leaders not to support me. He even did not recommend my name despite the fact that I lost the seat only by 4,000 votes in 2019”.


Shelke also said that Patole’s entire focus was on how to become the chief minister if the MVA comes to power. Shelke’s allegations virtually created flutter into the political circle. So far Patole has not issued any clarification over these accusations. Shelke was elected as a corporator in 2017 from the constituency that houses the RSS headquarters and the residences of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and union minister Nitin Gadkari.


As the state Congress party reviewed the reasons for its poor performance in the Assembly polls in an introspection meeting at its office, the top leadership faced serious accusations from its workers.


Meanwhile, Nana Patole, after meeting the newly-elected MLAs as well as the defeated candidates accused the election commission of robbing the people of their votes by pointing at the last-hour rise in voting percentage.


Referring to the data released by the election commission, Patole said that the voter turnout at 5pm on polling day was reported as 58.22 per cent. By 11:30pm, the same night, it increased to 65.02 per cent, and by the next day, November 21, it rose to 66.05 per cent. This shows a clear increase of 7.83 percentage points, or 7.6 million. “The rise is doubtful, and the poll body should release video footage from the polling centres where such a rise was recorded,” he demanded.


As many as 85 candidates of Congress were defeated in the assembly elections, with 17 candidates losing by more than 50,000 votes.


It may be recalled that the Congress had in its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha election mentioned the “efficiency” of EVMs. The setback for the Congress-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the Maharashtra election, which has sparked the latest controversy, shouldn’t have come as a surprise, at least to the Congress. Internal surveys for the Congress suggested that the BJP-led Mahayuti was gaining over the Congress-led MVA. Now the party leaders have trained their guns on the Election Commission.

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