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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.

Now, Ajit Dada of NCP

Updated: Nov 25, 2024

NCP

Mumbai: The NCP chief Ajit Pawar has strengthened his position in the Mahayuti not only by winning 41 seats but with an impressive strike rate of 65 per cent. This performance has put the full stop on the whispering of whether Ajit Pawar is still relevant for Mahayuti.


The ruling alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar was ahead in 231 of the state’s 288 seats. Within the Mahayuti, it is the BJP that is ahead; the saffron party is leading in 132 of the 149 seats it is contesting. The Shinde Sena is ahead in 55 of the 81 it is contesting and Ajit Pawar’s NCP 40 of 59.


Considering the figures BJP and Shiv Sena can easily form the government. However, the BJP leadership is in no mood to upset the alliance. Nevertheless, the RSS has some reservations about Ajit Pawar. But the BJP has decided to continue with the three-party alliance even in future. Ajit Pawar’s clout in Western Maharashtra especially in the sugar belt cannot be overlooked and in this backdrop BJP will not desert NCP.


The MVA - decimated after claiming victory in the Lok Sabha election this year, in which it won 30 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. This time around the MVA managed to get only 52 seats. Its solo show aside, the BJP will still need both the Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar’s seats to cross the two third majority mark. And it is those two that will put its larger ally out of reach of the MVA. Overall, the Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar are on course to win 95 seats.


The Mahayuti is en route to a record win in the Maharashtra Assembly election, in which no alliance has ever crossed the magic 200-seat mark. In the Mahayuti, the Shinde Sena and the BJP appear to be at odds on the same issue, with the former batting for Shinde to continue and the latter pitching Fadnavis, who was the Chief Minister when the BJP and (then) undivided Sena were in power between 2014 and 2019. The NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar has thrown its hat in the ring too, on the back of hopes it will emerge as the ‘kingmaker’. However, a clear-cut verdict has ruled out this possibility.


Ajit has been considered to be the weakest link of the Mahayuti alliance since its formation and all through the seat-sharing talks for the election. The taunts along this line have come mostly from leaders of the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP who claimed the patriarch’s nephew “betrayed” the family only to end up in a “weak position” in Mahayuti.

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