Bombay High Court denies interim bail to Republic TV owner Arnab Goswami in abetment to suicide case

The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to grant interim relief to Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, who has been remanded to 14-days judicial custody till November 18 in a 2018 abetment to suicide case.

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to grant interim relief to Arnab Goswami, the Editor-in-Chief and owner of Republic TV, who has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody till November 18 in a 2018 abetment to suicide case. 

"Can't pass interim order without hearing the complainant and State," a bench comprising Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik said while posting the habeas petition filed by Goswami challenging his arrest for hearing at 3 PM on Friday.

The bench also directed Goswami to make the complainant in the case, Akshata Naik, Anvay's wife, a respondent to his plea. "We have to hear all the parties concerned before considering the interim relief sought. We have to also hear the complainant as the family of the deceased has filed a petition here seeking transfer of the probe," the bench said.

"The respondents (the Maharashtra government and the complainant) are entitled to respond....We will consider the interim relief sought tomorrow," the court said.

Senior counsel Aabad Ponda, appearing for Goswami, said a bail plea filed before the Alibaug magistrate's court has been withdrawn. "The magistrate had not given clarity on when the bail plea would be heard and had also expressed difficultly in hearing the same as the case lies in the jurisdiction of the sessions court. Hence, we are seeking interim bail here in the high court," Ponda said.

A court at Alibaug in Maharashtra's Raigad district had on Wednesday remanded Goswami and two other accused in judicial custody till November 18 in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.

Police had sought Goswami's custody for 14 days, but the court held that custodial interrogation was not required.

On Wednesday night, Goswami was taken for medical examination at a state-run hospital in the coastal town, news agency PTI said. Goswami spent the night at a local school which has been designated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison.

Goswami and the two others have been booked under section 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and Naik's mother over alleged non-payment of dues by Republic TV.

The other two arrested accused in the case, Feroze Mohammed Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda, were also produced in the Alibaug court on Wednesday and remanded to judicial custody till November 18.

Naik, in his purported suicide note, had mentioned the names of Goswami, Shaikh and Sarda, police said, adding the note was sent to handwriting experts in Pune and a report is awaited.

Goswami had on November 2 filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR in the case. It will be heard by a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and M S Karnik on Thursday.

A team of Raigad police picked up Goswami (47) from his Lower Parel house in Mumbai on Wednesday morning. He alleged that he was pushed into the police van and assaulted by police before being taken away. Goswami was produced in a court in Alibaug, around 90 km from Mumbai, and was remanded to judicial custody till November 18. The court ruling came shortly after 11 pm.

Maharashtra Police had registered an FIR against Goswami, his wife, son and two others for "obstructing, assaulting, verbally abusing and intimidating" a police officer on duty and for tearing up "government papers" (arrest intimation) at his house, the official said.

The FIR was registered at the N M Joshi Marg police station on Wednesday under sections 353, 504, 506 of IPC and section 3 of the Damage of Public Property Act, the official said.

Several leading media houses and top political leaders had condemned the Maharashtra Police action against Goswami and termed it as “suppression of freedom of expression’’.