Mumbai court grants bail to two men over threat to Fadnavis

Mumbai, Mar 7 (PTI) A court here on Thursday granted bail to two persons held in connection with a death threat to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Bandra, Atul Jadhav, granted bail to Kinchak Navle and Yogesh Sawant. They were released on submission of bail bonds of Rs 15,000, their lawyer Satish Maneshinde said.

Navle, a farmer from Beed, had given an interview to a YouTube channel during which he made a death threat to Fadnavis and also used objectionable language against the deputy CM, according to the police. Sawant had allegedly shared Navle’s interview on social media.

In their bail pleas, the accused claimed innocence and said that they had been wrongly implicated in the case.

No prima facie case is made out against the accused, the pleas said, adding that it was registered due to “ulterior motive” and to restrict the movement of the applicants.

The duo were arrested last week after the Santacruz police here registered a case against them under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 153A (promoting enmity) and 500 (defamation) on a complaint by one Akshay Panvelkar.