The Bombay High Court on Monday denied interim relief to Arnab Goswami, Republic TV‘s editor-in-chief, and asked him to move the sessions court for bail.
Since the high court asked the sessions court to decide on the senior journalist’s bail plea in four days, Goswami must stay behind bars for at least four more days, ANI reported on Monday.
Goswami was shifted to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai on Sunday morning after he was allegedly found using a cell phone in judicial custody, when he went live on social media for over two hours.
Since his arrest on November 4, he had been housed in a temporary prison in a school in Alibaug. Goswami was remanded to a 14-day judicial custody.
According to an NDTV report, after a special session, the court on Saturday said: “We can’t pass any order today. Meanwhile, we will clarify that pendency of the petition will not bar the petitioner from approaching the sessions court for bail and if such an application is filed, it should be decided within four days.”
Late night on October 7, the court held a day-long session and issued a notice stating that it would announce the orders on Goswami’s bail plea at 3 pm on Monday.
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Goswami had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court on November 5, challenging his “illegal arrest” by the Maharashtra Police in the 2018 case of abetment of suicide of Anvay Naik, an interior designer. A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik agreed to consider the petition filed by Anvay Naik’s daughter Adnya Naik in the case on November 6. Justice Shinde said that the bench would hear both sides before passing the order.
Goswami is accused of non-payment of dues by his news channel Republic TV to Anvay Naik’s company Concorde Designs Pvt Ltd.
During the probe, the police had found a suicide note which held claimed that Anvay Naik and his mother took their lives after the non-payment of dues amounting to Rs 83 lakh by Goswami of Republic TV, Rs 4 crore by Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, and Rs 55 lakh by Niteish Sarda of Smartworks.