Arnab Goswami was arrested on Wednesday morning from his home in Mumbai.
Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court is likely to pass orders on Republic TV Promoter Arnab Goswami’s petition against the reopening of the 2018 abetment to suicide case against him and his arrest. The court had indicated – during an earlier hearing – that he was free to seek bail in the sessions court.
The court on Saturday had said, “We can’t pass any order today. Meanwhile, we will clarify that pendency of the petition will not bar the petitioner from approaching the sessions court for bail and if such an application is filed, it should be decided within four days.”
If the Bombay High Court passes an order against his arrest, Arnab Goswami will be able to come out of jail, or else he will have to get bail from the sessions court. He will remain in jail till either of the two happens.
Arnab Goswami was arrested from his Mumbai home on Wednesday after the police claimed they had found new evidence in the 2018 suicide case. He was initially lodged in a local (Zilla Parishad) school which had been turned into a quarantine centre for prisoners but he was moved to the Taloja Jail on Sunday.
The police, however, did not get custody after his arrest and a magistrate’s court sent him to judicial custody. The police have now challenged Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order in the sessions court in Raigad district as they say police custody is necessary for investigation.
Arnab Goswami’s lawyers – senior lawyer Harish Salve and Abad Ponda – have argued that the police have not met the legal requirement of getting the consent from a court for reopening the case, which led to his arrest. They say the arrest and the reopening of the case is “illegal”.
The Sessions Court in Raigad is hearing the police’s petition for challenging the magistrate’s order of judicial custody to Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami instead of his police custody as the police had sought for investigating the case. The police have asked the sessions court to reconsider the magistrate’s court’s orders.
Advocate Amit Desai, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, argued: “Arrest happens before a person is produced before the Magistrate. The moment your illegal arrest has resulted in a judicial remand, the question of arrest is not relevant later.”
Mr Goswami was arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik.
The case dates back to 2018 where Avnay Naik, an architect and interior designer, died by suicide and named Arnab Goswami and two others in a suicide note.
The case was closed earlier when the BJP was in power in the state after the police told a court that there was no evidence to proceed against the accused and prosecute them.
Naik’s family appealed to the government saying the probe had been scuttled and the government ordered a re-examination of the case.
