Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, arrested in a case of incitement to suicide on November 4, did not get any immediate relief on Saturday, as the Bombay High Court reserved its order on his provisional bail bond.
But the court said it can move the session court to regular bail in the meantime.
Elsewhere, the Raigad session court said it will hear a police appeal against a magistrate’s order denying them custody of Goswami and two other defendants on November 9.
After hearing marathon arguments, a division bench of judges SS Shinde and MS Karnik said it would not be possible to pass the order on Saturday.
Goswami’s attorney, Harish Salve, requested his release as “interim relief,” but the HC expressed its inability to do so.
“We will pass the order as soon as possible. The handling of this matter does not prevent you (Goswami) or the other defendant from going to the lower court in question in search of a regular bond, ”the court said.
If a bond is filed, then the court of sessions will decide within four days, he said.
The high court was hearing petitions from Goswami, a high-profile television journalist, and two other defendants, Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda, requesting provisional bail and questioning their “illegal arrest”.
The trio were arrested by Alibaug police in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on November 4 in connection with the suicide of architect and interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of fees by the respective firms. of the accused.
The petitions also sought the suspension of the investigation and the annulment of the FIR.
The court, which only heard arguments on provisional bail on Saturday, said it would hear petitioners about the annulment of the FIR on December 10, after the Diwali holiday.
Following his arrest from his Lower Parel residence here amid great drama on Wednesday, Goswami was taken to Alibaug, where the Chief Judicial Magistrate sent him and two others into judicial custody until November 18.
As the magistrate refused to take them into police custody, the Alibaug police filed a plea for review in the Raigad district court, which it said earlier on Saturday that it will hear it on November 9.
Goswami is currently housed in a local school that has been designated as a COVID-19 center for Alibaug Prison.
The higher court, upon hearing the arguments on Saturday, sought to know why the petitioners did not request bail from the lower court.
“The superior court is already overloaded with regular bond appeals. We do not want to undermine the authority of the session court, which is empowered to hear the regular bail statement, ”Judge Shinde said.
In his release on bail, Goswami alleged that he and his family were attacked by the police during the arrest and that he sustained a “six-inch deep wound on his left hand, a serious spinal cord injury.”
But his attorneys did not raise these accusations during the discussions.
Lead attorney Amit Desai, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, objected to the bail and said there was new material to reopen the case that had previously been closed.
The defendant should have approached the session court first, and if they do, the “police will not seek postponements or prolong the hearing,” Desai said.
Desai also argued that the fact that the Alibaug police have submitted a summary report ” closing the case does not mean that there cannot be a new investigation. “A ‘summary does not mean that the crime did not occur or that the case is false. It just means that the investigation could not be completed. This is a matter that is now under investigation again, ”he said.
He also maintained that the magistrate’s permission was not required to carry out an additional investigation.
“The state government ordered the (new) investigation whereby the police hinted at the magistrate on October 15, 2020. The magistrate noted ‘Seen’ and kept the file.
“After this, the statements of various witnesses, including the victim’s family, were registered before the magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC,” he said.
Lead attorney Shirish Gupte, who appeared on behalf of victim Anvay Naik’s wife, Akshata Naik, also objected to the pleas, saying the magistrate had accepted the closing report in 2019 without giving the victim’s family the opportunity to object.
Attorney Devadatt Kamat, appearing on behalf of Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, requested the removal of Singh’s name as a defendant in Goswami’s guilty plea, saying the case was brought by the Alibaug police and that he had nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile, the HC also sought a response from the state government on a petition filed by Anvay Naik’s daughter, Adnya Naik, seeking a new investigation by an independent agency. It will be heard on December 8.
Goswami’s lawyers, during the previous hearing, had claimed that the accusations against him were unfounded and the Maharashtra government only wanted to harass him for his outspokenness as a journalist.
.
