Hanuman Chalisa row: Prison officials neglected MP Navneet Rana's health issues, alleges husband

MLA Ravi Rana alleged that his wife and independent MP from Amravati Navneet Rana's health issues were neglected by prison officials in Mumbai.

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Mumbai: MLA Ravi Rana on Thursday alleged that prison officials did not pay attention to his wife and independent MP from Amravati Navneet Rana when she complained of health issues and requested hospitalization.

Ravi Rana, MLA from Badnera in eastern Maharashtra's Amravati district, was released from Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai around 4 pm on Thursday. Two hours earlier, Navneet had been released from Byculla women's jail here.

Both had been arrested by Mumbai Police for `sedition' and `promoting enmity between different groups' on April 23 following their call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence `Matoshree' here.

A court granted them bail on Wednesday. After walking out of prison, Ravi Rana visited Lilavati hospital in suburban Bandra where Navneet Rana was admitted after release. A video clip from inside the ward, which showed him consoling her as she lay on the hospital bed and wept, went viral.

Earlier, as he headed for the hospital, the MLA showed a copy of Hanuman Chalisa which he was carrying to the media persons. "I am going to check on her condition. She had been requesting prison officials for the last six days that she be admitted to a hospital, but they did not pay attention," Ravi Rana said, alleging that her health issues were neglected.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya accompanied Rana when he went inside the hospital to meet his wife. As per her lawyer, Navneet Rana was suffering from high blood pressure, body pain and spondylitis.