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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.

Sule rules out reuniting with cousin Ajit

Mumbai: NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule has said political rapprochement with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is not possible till he is aligned with the BJP and said she will not be a CM post aspirant if the MVA is voted to power.


In an exclusive interview to PTI, four-time Lok Sabha member Sule said people voted very assertively in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and there is clarity in voters’ mind now.


Sule said, “It is hard to say whether Pawars can reunite with Ajit Pawar politically. As long as he is working for the BJP it will not be easy. Our ideologies still remain a challenge politically.”


On speculations that she could be the MVA’s CM face, she said, ‘I am not contesting elections and the NCP (SP) has made it clear that we are not in the race for CM’s post. We have clarity and we will go along with whoever our partners decide .”


Asked if the upcoming assembly polls will settle the fragmented polity in Maharashtra, the parliamentarian said the Lok Sabha election results have settled the confusion.


‘There is already clarity in the state. There is no issue as such except that the legal fight continues because of the illegal way parties were broken, the illegal way they were given to people...the fight will continue,’ she said.

The NCP (SP) is contesting 86 out of 288 assembly seats (as per the seat-sharing arrangement of MVA allies) in the state elections and is confident of doing well, she said.


Sule said she doesn’t see the contest in Baramati assembly seat, Pawars’ family bastion where Ajit Pawar is pitted against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, as anything more than an ideological fight.


“We are aligned with the Congress and they with the BJP. We are fighting the BJP, so we fight their allies,” she said.


MVA not countering Ladki Bahin scheme

Supriya Sule has said the opposition MVA is not planning to counter the Maharashtra government’s flagship Ladki Bahin Yojana, but questioned the amount provided under the scheme in view of the soaring inflation. Under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, women with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh are given Rs 1500 per month as aid. On the scheme being called a “gamechanger” ahead of the November 20 state assembly polls, Lok Sabha member Sule in an interview to PTI said, “All depends on how you see it and who is saying it.”


“Rs 1,500 is given to women and at the same time oil prices, food inflation is at an all-time high. Sales dropped during Diwali and the state GDP is not flattering. Crimes against women have gone up,” she pointed out.

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