New Delhi: The Bombay High Court Monday refused to grant interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in a 2018 abetment to suicide case against him.
The order was pronounced by a bench comprising justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik who held a special sitting at 3 pm, despite the court being shut for Diwali holidays.
“No prima facie case has been made out by the petitioner for invoking extra-ordinary jurisdiction,” the court said.
This bench had Saturday sat for a six-hour marathon hearing. It had, however, refused to pass any order immediately to grant Goswami bail, clarifying that the pendency of this petition would not stop him from approaching the sessions court for bail and that if such an application is filed, “it should be decided within 4 days”.
The court had also assured Goswami’s counsel, senior advocate Harish Salve, that it will pronounce its order sometime in the coming week, as early as possible.
Meanwhile, earlier Monday, Goswami filed a regular bail application before the Alibaug sessions court seeking his release from judicial custody.
Also read: In Arnab Goswami’s arrest, the emergence of Uddhav 2.0
The 2018 case
The 2018 case involves the suicide of 53-year-old architect Anvay Naik, and his mother Kumud. The duo had left behind a suicide note.
An FIR was registered on the basis of the note against Goswami and two others — Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, a media services firm, and Niteesh Sarda of Smartwork, which provides “flexible workspaces” — in Alibaug, a city in Raigad district near Mumbai, where the incident took place.
The case was closed by Raigad Police in April 2019 apparently due to lack of evidence.
In May this year, however, the Maharashtra home ministry announced a fresh investigation in the case on a complaint filed by Naik’s daughter, Adnya.
Goswami was arrested by the Maharashtra Police last Wednesday and sent to a 14-day judicial custody the same day by the chief judicial magistrate of the Alibaug trial court.
In his plea in the Bombay High Court filed last Wednesday, Goswami questioned the police for re-investigating the case given that a closure report filed in 2019 was accepted by the magistrate.
He also said the police did not take the court’s prior permission to re-investigate the case. He, therefore, challenged his arrest as “illegal”.
Also read: The 6 cases filed against Arnab Goswami & Republic TV in Maharashtra since 2018