Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV, will have to spend a third night in detention after his arrest for alleged complicity in the suicide of an interior designer. Anvay Naik who had worked in his office in Mumbai.
On Wednesday, a chief judicial magistrate in Alibaug, Sunayna Pingale, had rejected a request for his police custody and placed him in pre-trial detention for 14 days in the case against him and two others dating back to May 5, 2018.
The court of judges SS Shinde and MS Karnik in its order on Friday said it listened to Goswami’s senior advisers, Harish Salve and Aabad Ponda, “for a considerable time,” but as the court day came to an end at 5 pm, the hearing would continue on Saturday.
The court said the petitions of two other defendants will also be heard on Saturday along with the petition filed by the original informant, Naik’s wife, Akshata.
The HC noted that attorney Nilesh Ojha also filed a request to intervene in Goswami’s annulment petition.
“There is consensus among all the advisers that the hearing of all the matters can be held on Saturday at noon,” said the bench after asking the advisers representing all parties.
Goswami has filed a “habeas corpus” petition alleging “illegal arrest” and requested the annulment of the 2018 FIR and a suspension of the investigation which was restarted by the police.
Naik’s daughter has filed a petition requesting a transfer of the investigation to the criminal branch and challenging the closure of the case in April 2019 for being “arbitrary” and approved without listening to her family.
Salve and Ponda on Friday cited various Supreme Court rulings and the law on instigation of suicide under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, to argue that no crime was committed against him.
Improvement requires active intention and proximate relationship and cause.
Salve said that the last ruling of the SC on October 1 of this year by a bank headed by judge NV Ramana said that it cannot be assumed that the “intention” is apparently present, but that it must be “visible and conspicuous”, leaving aside from the conviction in a case of “instigation to suicide.”
Salve said this was a freedom case and pleaded with the court to release Goswami.
Goswami’s lawyer read parts of the magistrate’s order in Marathi and said that the magistrate has said that the case against Goswami is closed and the closure was accepted in 2019.
“As of today, he is in judicial custody,” Salve said, adding “that the police custody request be decided after two weeks. The lordship has to balance …”. He added that the “problem” may not be what it says on television after the launch.
Salve said the state’s action against Goswami was an “abuse of power and mala fide.”
Meanwhile, lead attorney Devadatt Kamat, who appears on behalf of Mumbai Police Chief Param Bir Singh, said that Goswami wrongly added his name as a defendant and that it should be removed. He objected to Singh’s name as a defendant in the petition.
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