December 16, 2020 2:43:20 am
Arnab goswami
After the Maharashtra government assured that it would not take any enforcement action against Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and other employees of ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, which runs the channel, until Wednesday, the Mumbai High Court on Tuesday he said he will hear the channel’s request to override the Mumbai police FIR in the TRP scam fraud case and also against the charge sheet filed by the police.
A bench in the division of Judge SS Shinde and Judge MS Karnik, while listening to pleas from ARG Outlier and Goswami, was informed by lead attorney Aabad Ponda that there is a fear that the Mumbai police would arrest Goswami and other employees of the channel and, therefore, to an interim. Relief has been requested to prevent police from doing so until the next hearing on Wednesday.
Ponda added that he was informed that the Mumbai police had arrived in Delhi to arrest Goswami and therefore it was urgent that the court intervene until both parties were heard.
After the court asked Deepak Thakare, who was appearing before the state and the police, to seek instructions, he said that no enforcement action would be taken until December 16 against the people named on the charge sheet.
The court accepted his statement and noted that there was a “consensus” between the parties that the petition can be conveniently heard via videoconference and published at the next hearing until Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a trial court in Mumbai on Tuesday sent Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani, who was arrested in the TRP case, into judicial custody for 14 days. Furthermore, the Mumbai police assured the session court that they will not arrest Republic TV chief financial officer S Sundaram in the case until December 21.
.
