Arnab Goswami moves Supreme Court challenging Bombay HC's order refusing interim bail

Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order, which refused to grant him interim relief in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.

Goswami, in his plea moved through advocate Nirnimesh Dube, made the Maharashtra government, Mumbai Police, Central government and other respondents in the matter.

The Bombay High Court had on Monday refused to grant interim relief to Arnab Goswami and two others in connection with the case and directed him to approach a lower court to seek bail.

After rejecting the interim bail plea of Republic TV Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alibaug permitted the Maharashtra Police's Crime Branch to interrogate him daily for three hours, officials had said.

The orders came in an application of November 5 by the Crime Branch of Raigad police seeking permission to question Goswami at Taloja Central Jail where he is currently lodged in judicial custody till November 18.

A division bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice MS Karnik observed that no case is made out to exercise the extraordinary jurisdiction of the High Court. Earlier yesterday, Goswami had also filed a bail before a Raigad Sessions court.

The High Court was hearing the bail applications of Goswami and two other persons accused in the death case of interior designer Anvay Naik, who allegedly died by suicide in Alibaug in May 2018. A suicide note purportedly written by Naik alleged that Goswami had not paid him his dues.

The Bombay High Court had on November 7 reserved its order on Arnab Goswami's plea challenging his arrest and seeking relief in the matter. Last week, Goswami and two others were arrested in connection with the case. He, along with the other two accused, was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a lower court later that day.

Goswami had alleged that he along with his mother-in-law, father-in-law, son and wife were physically assaulted by the officers of the Mumbai Police, who entered Goswami's residence, to arrest him at the early hours of November 4.

The suicide case, in which a closure report was filed in 2019, was reopened after Naik's wife Akshata approached a court. In September this year, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had ordered a re-investigation into the case after a fresh complaint by Naik's daughter.

(With agency inputs)