Bombay HC rejects Arnab Goswami’s plea, says 'no interim relief will be given'

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami. The court rejected Goswami’s plea by saying that no interim relief will be given to him.

The bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice M S Kaushik said that it will hear both sides and then pass an appropriate order based on the hearing on Friday next.

The bench said that it will hear a plea by Adnya Anvay Naik, daughter of the late architect, seeking a reinvestigation in connection with the FIR of her father’s suicide case.

According to reports, Goswami wants the charge quashed and has also questioned his arrest by the Mumbai police on Wednesday.

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Senior Advocate Abad Ponda representing Arnab said that the commencement of new investigation after the re-opening of the case was contrary to well-settled principles of criminal law.

Replying to the Advocate, the bench informed that it will issue a notice to the complainant and will then hear the case on some other date after the vacations.

The bench further added that the advocate can challenge the remand order issued by a court in Alibag on Wednesday evening.

While challenging the FIR and objecting to reopening of the case, Arnab’s plea said, “It now transpires that due to vendetta and personal animosity of the political dispensation in Maharashtra, respondent Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh and based on a video released by Akshata Naik, wife of the deceased, the case has been reopened which was earlier closed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raigad on the basis of the closure report filed by the Alibaug Police.”

The plea further claimed that the journalist’s company has paid over 90% of the payable amount to Anvay Naik’s company as per the terms of their contract.

Goswami further said that he was not directly in contact with the late designer regarding any form of work.

Arnab Goswami who was arrested on Wednesday in connection with abetment to suicide of an interior designer, was remanded to judicial custody till November 18 by a court in Maharashtra’s Alibag.

Goswami was produced before the Alibag District Magistrate Court along with two other accused — Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Darda.

The magistrate has directed the officials to take Goswami to the civil hospital for a medical checkup.

The Police sought a 14-day remand of Arnab citing him as an “influential person” who could also tamper with the investigation process.

It is pertinent to mention here that architect and interior designer, Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik died by suicide at their farmhouse in Maharashtra’s Alibag on May 5, 2018.

The designer left behind a suicide note where he named three individuals who he said were responsible for the suicide.

In the note, Naik said that the three individuals in question owed his firm Concorde Designs a total of Rs 5.4 crore which did not allow him to pay his creditors.

The note said that Arnab Goswami owed Naik Rs 83 lakhs, Feroz Shaikh owed the firm Rs 4 crore, and Nitesh Sarda Rs 5 lakh.

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