November 27, 2020 11:57:33 am
Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was released from Taloja central prison on Wednesday. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar)
In a detailed order published Friday, the Supreme Court said it had released Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami on bail in connection with a incitement to suicide as the Maharashtra police were unable to establish the charges against him. He said there was a “disconnect” between the FIR and the “ingredients of the crime of instigation to suicide.”
A bank of judges DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee, who had granted Goswami bail on November 11, criticized the Bombay High Court for not exercising its power and said it had “abdicated its role as protector of constitutional values and fundamental rights.”
“The doors of this court cannot be closed to a citizen who has shown prima facie that the state has abused its power,” the superior court said.
Goswami was arrested in connection with the case on November 4, along with two other people. Your statement of provisional bond It was rejected by the Bombay HC days later, on November 9, after the court asked him to submit an application to the session court in Alibag.
“Arnab Goswami claimed that he was under attack for his views on issues since April 2020. But here, the High Court abdicated its role as protector of constitutional values and fundamental rights. Criminal law must not become a tool of selective harassment for citizens ”, said the CS, quoted by Bar and bench.
The CS said that the deprivation of personal liberty, even for a single day, was too much, adding that there was an “urgent need” for the courts to solve the institutional problems of delay in the treatment of the bail request, reported the news agency. PTI.
“The Supreme Court, the High Courts and the district judiciary must ensure that criminal law does not become a weapon for targeted harassment of citizens,” the court said.
The case dating back to 2018 was reopened by the police in Raigad. It is about the death of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik at their home in Alibag in May 2018. According to the police, the Naiks committed suicide due to an alleged non-payment of fees by the Goswami channel and companies of the other two men.
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