Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was arrested last week in an alleged abetment to suicide case
New Delhi:
Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami has approached the Supreme Court after the Bombay High Court denied interim bail to him on Monday in an alleged abetment to suicide case. Mr Goswami was arrested last week for allegedly abetting the suicide of 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018.
The TV anchor’s petition for relief against his arrest and reopening of the case was refused for a second time on Monday by the Bombay High Court, which said he can go to a lower court to seek bail.
The arrest and reopening of the two-year-old case was “illegal”, Mr Goswami had told the Bombay High Court.
A day after his arrest, the high court had said it wanted to hear the matter “in detail”. “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,” the high court had said.
Mr Goswami’s lawyers – Harish Salve and Abad Ponda – argued that the police have not met the legal requirement of getting a court’s consent for reopening the case, which led to his arrest.
In its order, the court said, “We find that before carrying out the said investigation, the Magistrate was intimated about the further investigation. Thereafter, even the statements are recorded under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after obtaining permission from Chief Judicial Magistrate. In our opinion, the further investigation cannot be termed as illegal and without seeking permission of the Magistrate.”
Anvay Naik, an architect and interior designer who reportedly designed Republic TV’s sets, named Mr Goswami and two others in a suicide note in which he alleged that his dues were not paid by the channel.
The case was closed earlier when the BJP was in power in Maharashtra after the police told a court that there was no evidence to proceed against the accused and prosecute them.
Mr Naik’s family appealed to the government saying the probe had been scuttled and the government ordered a re-examination of the case.
