Arnab Goswami & Republic TV's Plea Against Mumbai Police's FIR In TRP Scam: Live Updates From Bombay High Court

Mundargi refers to the 'money distribution' chat.

Mundargi urges the court to refers to the original chats even when the prosecution argues

J Pitale - So this chat produced here is the interpretation of the IO?

Mundargi - Yes. Our channel hadn't even launched then (refers to a part of the chat which speaks about distribution)

Mundargi now asks the court to peruse a portion of the chats without reading it aloud.

Mundargi - This was done only to prejudice the court. 

He submits Arnab and Dasgupta were working together in TimesNow and are old friends.

 Mundargi - There is not one message or chat about bribing people. It will only show they are two very close friends chatting on subjects that friends ordinarily chat. Sometimes they are abusing someone... I will not argue beyond this.

J Shinde- How can a chat be retrieved?

Thakare- FSL can procure it

J Pitale - If a deleted chat can be procured then where is the privacy? What is all this about end-to-end encryption? 

Mundargi - I will not make a political speech, but they have demonstrated how far they can go.

J Shinde urges the Chief PP Deepak Thakare to make a statement on how long will they will take to complete the investigation 

Mundargi begins dealing with the WhatsApp chats between Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta.

gives background

Mundargi - I will not make a political speech, but they have demonstrated how far they can go.

J Shinde urges the Chief PP Deepak Thakare to make a statement on how long will they will take to complete the investigation 

J Shinde - In Bhajan Lal's Case, the investigation is in the exclusive domain of the investigating officer, and you are right in saying that a statement needs to come from the officer on how long he will take to complete the investigation. 

Mundargi says a misleading chart was submitted to the court by the prosecution to oppose Partho Dasgupta's bail application.

Mundargi - At one stage the chart says 'for distribution of money.' The actual chart was in respect of creating a distribution network for Republic TV before the channel even started.

Mundargi states that after filing 4000 pages of charge sheet the test of reasonableness must be applied against the prosecution.

J Shinde points out that in this case the petitioners have been protected throughout. 

J Shinde states that what needs to be considered is whether the petitioners can pray for quashing despite only being suspects.

Mundargi now begins referring to the WhatsApp chats between Arnab Goswami and BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta 

Mundargi - This investigation will come to an end the day they arrest pet no. 2 (Arnab Goswami). It is the purpose of this investigation.

J Pitale - That's the domain of the investigating officer.  

J Shidne - There is no provision in law where we can restrict the investigation

J Shinde - Now if some material surfaces against an individual employee, can it still be considered in this petition, where the company is the petitioner?

Court asks Mundargi to make submissions on this.