No Relief For Journalist Arnab Goswami From Bombay HC, Interim Bail Plea Refused

A two-judge division bench pronounced its order on Monday. Goswami was arrested last Wednesday by the Maharashtra Police in connection with a 2018 alleged abetment to suicide case.

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Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, arrested in alleged abetment of suicide case on November 4, failed to get any immediate relief as the Bombay High Court refused his interim bail plea on Monday after reserving its judgment on Saturday. The court has directed Arnab to move to the sessions court. Also Read|'Trump Has Gone, So Will BJP', PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti The bench had been hearing Goswami’s plea for four days, including Monday, after he filed an interim bail plea on Saturday, calling his November 4 arrest “illegal”. Goswami, along with two other accused in the case - Firoz Shaikh and Neetish Sarda - was, on the day of his arrest, sent to 14-day judicial custody by the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Alibaug, rejecting Maharashtra Police’s plea for police custody. On Sunday, Goswami was transferred from a makeshift quarantine centre in Alibaug, where he had been kept, to Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai after he was allegedly found using a cellphone. A video shared by Republic TV showed Goswami alleging he was assaulted at the quarantine centre, and claiming there was a threat to his life. The case against Arnab Goswami Goswami has been arrested in a case that pertains to the death by alleged suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud in May 2018, nearly a year after Republic TV was launched. In a suicide note which went viral on social media, Naik had accused Goswami, Shaikh, and Sarda of non-payment of dues amounting to Rs 5.4 crore, because of which, Naik wrote, he was being forced to take such a step. The case was earlier closed by the Raigad Police but Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh ordered a reinvestigation in it earlier this year.