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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.

India dares, glares at L&T C-MD

90-hrs work-week

S. N. Subrahmanyan

Mumbai: An innocuous ‘progressive’ remark by Larsen & Toubro group Chairman-Managing Director S. N. Subrahmanyan (SNS) - mooting a 90-hour-week or deterring his 4-lakh plus employees from ‘staring’ at their wives on Sundays - triggered a massive backlash engulfing India Inc, trade unions, celebs and commoners alike besides acidic outpour or lampooning on the social media.


The comment – coming at a time when India almost scraped the bottom (126 out of 143) in the World Happiness Report-2024 – saw SNS mostly getting frowned upon by the likes of Gautam Adani, Anand Mahindra, Harsh Goenka, Adar Poonawalla, Rajiv Bajaj, Harsh Mariwala, CITU, AITUC and Deepika Padukone and other women, plus many more.


Apparently avoiding a direct attack, Adani – the second richest Indian in the world – told an interviewer that nobody should ‘impose’ their individual work-life balance on others.


The Adani Group chief also advocated employees to find their own ‘work-life’ balance while exhorting that they spend at least four hours with the family, and if both sides were happy, then it would be well.


Flaying SNS, the All India Trade Union Congress General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said though India has the need for all the work hours possible, “what about the raging unemployment” with a lot of youthful energy going waste.


Hitting hard, she (Kaur) said that the wealth created by the existing workforce at an (average) 48 hours a week is siphoned off by “leeches like Adanis, Ambanis, Choksis, Modis and others” increasing the rich-poor divide in India to a level where it was 80 years ago.


Terming SNS’ statement as ‘satanic’, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) General Secretary Tapan Kumar Sen suspected a ‘rogue competition among corporate messiahs” to rinse the blood and sweat of Indian workers in connivance with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

The AITUC’s All India Working Women’s Forum Convenor Vahidha Nizam condemned the objectification, dehumanization and disrespect shown to the womenfolk by SNS’ remarks.


“Wives are not to be adorned or be ‘stared at’… Subrahmanyan should know that a woman is an independent entity and her identity is not defined by her relationships,” she added sternly.

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