No immediate relief for Arnab Goswami, Bombay HC to hold special hearing on November 7
MUMBAI: Republic TV owner and editor Arnab Goswami will have to spend another day in judicial custody as the Bombay High Court refused to give him interim relief on Friday in an abetment to suicide case.
The bench has called a special session on Saturday noon to hear the side of the Maharashtra police and complainant Adnya Naik. It may later pronounce bail or jail to the anchor.
Arnab Goswami was arrested in the abetment of suicide case of architect Anvay Naik on November.
The Bombay High Court bench, headed by SS Shinde and MS Karnik, heard the petition and due to shortage of time extended the hearing for Saturday.
Earlier, the Alibaug chief judicial magistrate had granted 14 days judicial custody to anchor Arnab Goswami.
However, Maharashtra police approached the session court against the Alibaug court's order and seeked police custody of Mr. Goswami.
Arnab Goswami moved habeas corpus alleging that the arrest was illegal.
During the the course of hearing, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing Goswami, referred to the remand order passed by CJM Alibag, which, "makes important points about the illegality of arrest and the lack of merits in the allegations against Arnab Goswami".
He argued that a mere challenge, to the said order, does not matter as the CJM had passed the order after seeing the records.
“There must be a direct act which led the deceased to commit suicide. There was no personal relationship between Goswami and the deceased and they were merely involved in a commercial transaction,” Salve said.
He further argued, “You have commercial disputes with different people for over two years. You don't file a suit. You have creditors beating at your door. You kill yourself. There cannot be FIR for abetment to suicide for this. The conduct for abetment to suicide must be direct and proximate. The Magistrate had rightly accepted the closure report of police in 2019,” Salve argued.
However, the High Court had denied interim relief stating that it would pass orders after hearing the state and the complainant Adnya Naik.