MUMBAI: The Mumbai High Court on Friday refused to grant provisional measures to Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief and owner of Republic TV, who has been placed in pre-trial detention for 14 days until November 18 in a suicide complicity case in 2018.
“You cannot pass an interim order without hearing the plaintiff and the state,” said a bench made up of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik while publishing Goswami’s habeas petition challenging his arrest for a hearing at 3 p.m. Friday.
The court also ordered Goswami to make the complainant in the case, Akshata Naik, Anvay’s wife, a defendant for his statement. “We have to listen to all parties involved before considering the requested precautionary measure. We also have to listen to the complainant as the family of the deceased has filed a petition here requesting the transfer of the investigation,” the court said.
“The defendants (the government of Maharashtra and the plaintiff) have the right to answer … We will consider the interim relief requested tomorrow,” the court said.
Lead attorney Aabad Ponda, who appeared on Goswami’s behalf, said that a bond statement filed with the Alibaug Magistrates Court has been withdrawn. “The magistrate had not given clarity on when the bail statement would be heard and had also expressed difficulty in hearing the same, as the case is in the jurisdiction of the court of sessions. Therefore, we are seeking a provisional bail here at the higher court, “he added. Ponda said.
An Alibaug court in the Raigad district of Maharashtra had placed Goswami and two other defendants in pre-trial custody on Wednesday until November 18 in the 2018 suicide complicity case.
The police had sought custody of Goswami for 14 days, but the court held that a custodial interrogation was not necessary.
On Wednesday night, Goswami was brought in for a medical examination at a state hospital in the coastal city, the PTI news agency said. Goswami spent the night at a local school that has been designated as a COVID-19 center for Alibaug prison.
Goswami and the other two have been booked under section 306 (incitement to suicide) and 34 (common intent) of the IPC in connection with the suicide of architect and interior designer Anvay Naik and Naik’s mother for alleged non-payment of fees for part of Republic TV. .
The other two defendants arrested in the case, Feroze Mohammed Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda, were also presented in Alibaug court on Wednesday and placed in judicial custody until November 18.
Naik, in his alleged suicide note, had mentioned the names of Goswami, Shaikh and Sarda, police said, adding that the note was sent to handwriting experts in Pune and a report is awaited.
Goswami had filed on November 2 a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR in the case. It will be heard by a division bench of judges SS Shinde and MS Karnik on Thursday.
A Raigad police team picked up Goswami (47) from his Lower Parel home in Mumbai on Wednesday morning. He alleged that they pushed him into the police van and assaulted him before they took him away. Goswami was brought to court in Alibaug, about 90 km from Mumbai, and was placed in judicial custody until November 18. The court ruling came shortly after 11 pm.
The Maharashtra police had registered a FIR against Goswami, his wife, their son and two other persons for “obstructing, assaulting, verbally abusing and intimidating” a police officer on duty and for tearing “government documents” (intimidation of arrest) at his home, the official said.
The FIR was registered at the NM Joshi Marg Police Station on Wednesday under sections 353, 504, 506 of the IPC and section 3 of the Damage to Public Property Act, the official said.
Several major media outlets and senior political leaders had condemned the Maharashtra police action against Goswami, calling it “suppression of freedom of expression”.
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