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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.

The Angry Young Man of Congress

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

The Angry Young Man of Congress

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Nana Patole has hit the headlines yet again. Generally, whenever he is in headlines, he is angry and is mad at someone. The difference this time was that he angered Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut so much, so that Raut went mad at Nana asking the Congress leadership to keep Patole away from seat sharing talks.


However, this is not the first time that they both have locked horns. In 2021, the year when Patole was made the MPCC Chief by the party leadership, he had hit headlines by stating that his party shall contest the next elections on its own and shall have a Congress worker as a Chief Minister. Raut, who is also the Executive Editor of his party’s mouthpiece Saamna, had written an editorial saying that Patole was overconfident when he made the statement about the power of the Congress in the state.


Patole is accused of being authoritarian and several leaders in the state Congress have raised complained against him with the party high command over past four years. Yet, he enjoys the confidence of the party high command who haven’t moved him away from the post. Probably the reason for that Patole’s grass root connect and that he had been a staunch Congress loyalist though he spent a few years in the BJP and hit national headlines by speaking against PM Narendra Modi when none dared to do so.


Nana, who belongs to agrarian Kunbi community from Suki village of Sakoli taluka of Bhandara district, had a humble start in the Zilla Parishad in 1990 as a Congress member. After the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) his arch rival within the party, Praful Patel, went away making way for Nana’s ambition to become an MLA. After becoming MLA twice, in 1999 and 2004, Patole’s ambitions grew. However, he realised that he has little space in the state politics since the Congress and the NCP were in alliance and Patel was taking all the shots as far his home district was concerned. He then switched to BJP and got elected to the parliament in 2014. However, there too he realized that he stands little scope and he started criticising the top leadership of the party before quitting it in 2017.


Though he couldn’t keep his home turf in the bypolls, he won the assembly elections. He was made the Speaker of the assembly in 2019. He distasted the position and resigned from the post to join active politics in 2021, since when he is the MPCC president.


Under Patole’s leadership the party’s performance has been the best compared to past decade, and probably that is the reason why he appears to be the most favoured by the party high command. Even though differences with the Shiv Sena (UBT) over seat sharing are settled as of now, he is unlikely to dilute his stand and let anyone get bigger share of seats in Vidarbha, which is his best bet as of now.

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