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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 Political Weathercock

Weathercock

Ramdas Athawale is seeking five seats to contest the upcoming assembly election in the state and an assurance that his party shall get a Cabinet berth if the Mahayuti returns to power in the state after the assembly elections. However, the poet who is known to provide comic relief during serious yet mundane discussions in parliament seems to be unhappy as nobody appears to take him seriously.


Incidentally one of the youth leaders of the party has gone ahead to warn the bigger partners of the Mahayuti of serious consequences if they continue neglecting the smaller allies. This has led to speculations whether the political weathercock is really upset with the alliance?


Ramdas Athawale is union minister for last two terms and recently when he shared dais with Nitin Gadkari, he boasted that he shall be the union minister for the third consecutive term also. Gadkari jokingly taunted that he is not certain whether the NDA shall form government for the fourth consecutive term in the centre, but he is certain that Athawale shall remain a union minister. He also praised the political acumen of Athawale saying that he, like Ramvilas Paswan and Laluprasad Yadav can be called ‘political weathercock’. It is due to this tag, Athawale’s moves assume importance in the political circles.


Recently Dhangar leader Mahadev Jankar, who had once contested election against Sharad Pawar on the BJP backing, left the NDA and said that the chances are bleak that he shall return to the fold. Linking that to the recent Lok Sabha results, Athawale said that it would be wise to deal with the small unrest in smaller parties well in the time before it causes a big trouble later.


Athawale, an activist of Dalit Panther – an organisation founded by poet and activist Namdeo Dhasal that seeks to combat caste discrimination, rose to significance in the late 1970s, during a movement to rename Marathwada University after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and soon transitioned from an activist to a politician. In 1990, he joined the cabinet in the Sharad Pawar-led state government, allying with the Congress (I). and also served as member of the state legislative council from 1990 to 1996.


He had won the 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha polls from Pandharpur (later merged with the Solapur constituency), but lost the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat in 2009 to the Shiv Sena by more than a lakh votes and blamed the local Congress leadership forworking against him.


The next year he joined hands with Balasaheb Thackeray with call for coming together of the Bhim Shakti and Shiv Shakti. In 2012 he joined the NDA and in past 11 years when he has been a union minister, Athawale’s RPI has hardly grown. His latest ‘disappointment’ with the NDA needs to be looked at from this prism of his career, which unfolds a different spectrum before us.

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