Bombay HC refuses interim bail to Arnab Goswami, asks him to move lower court

The HC noted that the petitioner (Goswami) has the remedy under law to approach the sessions court concerned and seek regular bail.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to grant interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and two others in a 2018 case of abetment of suicide of an interior designer.

A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik said “no case was made out in the present matter for the high court to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction”.

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The HC noted that the petitioner (Goswami) has the remedy under law to approach the sessions court concerned and seek regular bail.

On Saturday, the high court, while reserving its order on the petitions seeking interim bail, said pendency of the matter in the HC does not preclude the accused persons from seeking regular bail before the sessions court.

The HC was hearing petitions filed by Goswami and two other accused Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda challenging their “illegal arrest” in the case and seeking interim bail.

Goswami and the two others were arrested by Alibaug police on November 4 in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused.

The three were later taken to Alibaug and produced before a magistrate who refused their custody to police and remanded them in judicial custody till November 18.

Goswami was initially kept at a local school which is designated as COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison.

On Sunday, he was shifted to the Taloja jail in Raigad district after allegedly being found using a mobile phone while in judicial custody, police said.

In his petition, Goswami alleged that he is being targeted and harassed by the Maharashtra government for his reportage on his news channel.