Declining any interim relief to Republic TV Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, currently in 14-day custody till 18 November, the Bombay High Court on Thursday said that it would hear both sides in the case before passing an appropriate order on Friday.
A division bench comprising Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice M.S. Karnik directed the lawyers of Goswami to make Akshata Naik – the widow of architect Anvay Naik – and the Centre party to the bail plea and serve copies to them.
The court would also hear on Friday the plea filed by Adnya Naik, the daughter of Akshata and Anvay, seeking a reinvestigation of the A-Summary Report filed by the Raigad Police in connection with the complaint into the double suicide of her father and grandmother Kumud Naik on May 5, 2018.
Goswami was arrested on Wednesday morning in a dramatic operation by the Mumbai and Raigad Police teams and was taken to Alibaug in connection with the double suicide case.
After a marathon hearing, Alibaug Court Chief Judicial Magistrate Sunaina S. Pingle declined the police plea for 14-day police custody and sent Goswami to judicial custody till November 18.
In his plea before the Bombay High Court, Goswami’s lawyer sought an urgent interim stay on the probe into the suicide case FIR in Alibaug accusing him of abetment to suicide, and demanded interim bail.
Based on a complaint by Akshata Naik, the Alibaug Police had registered the FIR in 2018 after her husband (Anvay) and mother-in-law (Kumud Naik) committed suicide on May 5 that year.
In a suicide note, Naik had named three persons – Republic TV’s Goswami for defaulting on a payment of Rs 83 lakh, Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia for defaulting Rs 4 crore and Nitesh Sarda of Smartworks for not paying Rs 55 lakh.
While Goswami was nabbed from his Worli home, Shaikh and Sarda were arrested from the Mumbai suburbs in the same case. The Naik mother-daughter duo has welcomed the police decision saying they are finally hopeful of getting justice.
IANS
