Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami has been granted interim bail by the apex court in the 2018 abetment to suicide case. A division bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud & Indira Banerjee heard the petitions filed by Arnab Goswami & co-accused Neetish Sarda & & Parveen Rajesh Singh against the Bombay High Court’s denial of interim bail.
[BREAKING] Supreme Court orders release of #ArnabGoswami and other co-accused on interim bail in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.
Bond of Rs 50,000 to be executed before Jail Suptd.
Police asked to execute order forthwith.#ArnabGoswami #SupremeCourt #SupremeCourtofIndia https://t.co/JputQo6ksv
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 11, 2020
According to media reports, during the hearing, Arnab’s lawyer Harish Salve said that Naik’s interior decoration firm was in debt for around seven years and it is possible that he first killed his mother and committed suicide. Salve claimed before the apex court that Arnab has paid all his vendors at the right time and the Raigad Police’s decision to reopen the case was not done in a legal manner.
Salve also talked about several cases filed against Arnab and Republic TV by Maharashtra police in the recent past. He added that the abetment to suicide case against Arnab was opened on the direction of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. Salve stressed that Arnab was arrested on November 4 and the magistrate should have released him on personal bond. He urged the SC to transfer the case to CBI.
The news anchor had moved the top court on Tuesday challenging the high court’s order denying him bail. Goswami, and two other accused Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda, was arrested on November 4. They were produced before the court on the same day. The magistrate, however, refused to send them in police custody and remanded them in judicial custody till November 18.
