Bombay High Court refuses interim bail to Arnab Goswami

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 suicideof an interior designer, and said the accused have the remedy of seeking bail from the sessions court concerned.

A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik while rejecting the interim bail pleas of Goswami and the two other accused Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda said "no case has been made out for us (court) to exercise our extraordinary jurisdiction".

With the high court refusing interim bail to Goswami, his stay at the Taloja jail will be extended. Goswami and the two others were arrested by Alibaug police in Maharashtra's Raigad district 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.

Meanwhile, the Alibaug sessions court allowed police to question Goswami for three hours daily in Taloja prison in connection with the case.

The HC in its order on Monday said, "The petitioners have an alternate and efficacious remedy of seeking bail before the sessions court concerned. We have already noted earlier that ifsuch bail plea is filed, then the sessions court shall decide the same in four days."

It said the sessions court shall hear and decide the bail pleas on merits. "Rejection of interim order shall not be construed as an impediment to the petitioners seeking alternate remedies.

The observations made in this order rejecting interim bail are prima facie only," the high court said in its order. The judges said, "In our opinion, further investigation ordered into the case by the Maharashtra government cannot be termed as illegal and without seeking permission of the magistrate".