Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami fails to get interim bail in abetment to suicide case

A Bombay High Court division bench said that "no case was made out in the present matter for the high court to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction".

Mumbai: In the 2018 case of abetment to suicide of an interior designer, the Bombay High Court on Monday (November 9) Refused to grant interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and two others. The HC, however, directed that Goswami has the remedy under the law to approach the sessions court concerned and seek regular bail.

A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik reportedly said that "no case was made out in the present matter for the high court to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction".

Goswami's petition alleged that he is being targeted and harassed by the Maharashtra government for his reportage on his news channel. 

While reserving its order on the petitions seeking interim bail, the HC on Saturday said that pendency of the matter in the court does not preclude the accused persons from seeking regular bail before the sessions court, while hearing petitions filed by Goswami and two other accused Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda.

The petition challenged their "illegal arrest" in the case and sought interim bail. Notably, the Alibaug police arrested Goswami and the two others on November 4 in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused.

The three were later taken to Alibaug and produced before a magistrate who refused their custody to police and remanded them in judicial custody till November 18.

Initially, Goswami was kept at a local school which is designated as COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison, but on Sunday, he was shifted to the Taloja jail in Raigad district.

Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami was allegedly found using a mobile phone while in judicial custody.