The Bombay High Court dismissed Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami’s interim bail application in connection with a 2018 abetment to suicide case. A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik said that Arnab can seek regular bail from a lower court and that there is no extraordinary reason for the Bombay High Court to interfere in this case.
The HC added that Arnab can approach the Sessions Court and the concerned court will decide the application in the time limit specified (4 days). “Any observations made by us in the present order will not affect the hearing of the bail application filed before the Sessions Court,” the court said.
The court also added that the Sessions Court will hear Arnab's plea independently and the observations made by the High Court during this hearing will not affect the trial in the Sessions Court. The Bombay High Court also refused to quash the ongoing investigation against him, and added his plea for quashing the FIR would be considered on December 10.
The court also said that it cannot accept Arnab's contention against the reopening of the case against him. The court said that opening of the investigation "cannot be said to be irregular or illegal by any stretch of imagination. The victim’s rights are equally important like the rights of the accused."
The High Court has also dismissed the interim bail applications of the co-accused Nitish Sarada and Parveen Rajesh Singh, who were arrested with him. Arnab and two others were arrested by Alibaug police in Maharashtra's Raigad district 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. While Anvay Naik died by suicide, forensic reports found that his mother was strangulated, and the investigators had concluded that he Anvay may have killed his mother and ended his life.
Arnab’s lawyers had argued in both the magistrate court and the High Court that all dues had been settled with Anvay’s company called Concorde design and only a few lakhs were pending as there were defects in the work. The family has however said that ARG Outlier, the company that owns Republic TV owned Concorde Rs 88 lakhs.
After his arrest from his Lower Parel residence in Mumbai, Goswami was taken to Alibaug, where the Chief Judicial Magistrate remanded him and the two others in judicial custody till November 18. On Sunday, Arnab was moved to the Taloja jail after he was allegedly found using a mobile phone while in judicial custody at a local school designated as COVID-19 centre for Alibaug prison in Raigad district, PTI reported.
On Saturday, the Bombay High Court after a day-long hearing in the pleas reserved its order without granting any immediate relief. Arnab and the other accused — Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda — had challenged their "illegal arrest" and sought to be released on interim bail.