[Breaking] Bombay High Court Refuses Interim Bail To Arnab Goswami In 2018 Abetment To Suicide Case [Read Order]

The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to grant interim bail to Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami, who was arrested and remanded to 14 days judicial custody on November 4, and two co-accused in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.

The Court said that no case was made out for the exercise of extraordinary jurisdiction by the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution when the petitioners have the alternate remedy of seeking regular bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure(Goswami and the co-accused had approached the High Court seeking writ of habeas corpus under Artice 226 against the arrest and remand in the case).

The Court further held that it cannot consider the submissions of Senior Advoate Harish Salve that the FIR does not disclose any offences against Goswami at present as the investigation is in progress. The Court has posted the writ petition for further hearing on December 10.

The bench clarified that its observations are prima facie in nature only for the purpose of deciding the interim application and will not apply to the application made by Arnab Goswami seeking regular bail.

'Rejection of interim application shall not be construed as an impediment to the petitioner seeking alternate remedies. Observations are prima facie in nature confined to the present application only', the bench said in the order.

The bench clarified that the accused can approach the Sessions Court and if such an application is made, the concerned court should decide it within 4 days.

The bench dismissed the interim bail applications of the co-accused Nitish Sarada and Parveen Rajesh Singh with the same observations as in the case of Arnab Goswami.

Ahead of the pronouncement of orders by the High Court, Goswami filed an application seeking regular bail before the Alibag Sessions Court. The Alibag Sessions Court is hearing today the revisin filed by Raigad police against the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Alibag refusing police custody of Arnab Goswami.

A division bench comprising Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik held a special sitting at 3 PM on Monday, despite the High Court being closed for Diwali holidays, to pronounce the orders on the interim bail applications in the habeas corpus petitions filed by Goswami and two other accused.

The bench had held a special sitting on Saturday from 12 noon to 6 PM to hear the case. Before that, the bench had heard the case on Thursday and Friday from 3 PM to 5 PM. It also heard Advocates Vijay Agarwal and Nikhil Mengde for the co-accused in the matter, Nitish Sarda and Praveen Rajesh Singh, respectively.

Though Senior Advocates Harish Salve and Abad Ponda made vehement submissions seeking ad-interim bail for Goswami, the bench refused to grant it. The bench clarified that the pendency of the case in the High Court will not be an impediment for the petitioners to seek regular bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the concerned court. If such an application is made, the court ordered, the same should be decided by the concerned court within four days of the filing.

Goswami was arrested on the morning of November in a case registered by the Raigad Police in 2018 for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 52-year old interior designer named Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik. He was remanded to judicial custody by CJM Alibag and was kept at a local school which has been esignated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison.