[Breaking] Bombay High Court To Hear Today Arnab Goswami's Plea Challenging His Arrest In The 2018 Suicide Case

Republic TV Editor-in Chief Arnab Goswami has petitioned the Bombay High Court challenging his "illegal arrest" in a 2018 case of abetment of suicide of an interior designer, and sought quashing of the FIR lodged against him by Alibaug police in Maharashtra.

A Devision Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik will hear the petition at 3pm today.

A court at Alibag in Maharashtra on Wednesday remanded Arnab Goswami  to 14 days judicial custody till November 18 in the case.

The Court turned down the plea for police custody. Arnab Goswami has moved for bail which the Alibag court will consider tomorrow.

Raigad Police on Monday arrested Arnab Goswami from his residence.

It is alleged that Anvay Naik left a suicide note written in English stating that he and his mother decided to take the extreme step on account of payments due to them not being cleared by the owners of three companies – television journalist Arnab Goswami of Republic TV, Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks.

Naik said in his suicide note that his company had executed interior works for Republic TV and an amount of Rs 83 lakh was due from Goswami and ARG Outlier Meida Pvt Ltd (parent company of Republic TV).

The Raigad police had closed the case in April 2019 saying that they did not find evidence against the accused named in the suicide note, including Goswami.

However, in May this year, Anvay's daughter approached the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh seeking the case be reopened.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had tweeted in May, "Adnya Naik had complained to me that Alibaug Police had not investigated non-payment of dues from Arnab Goswami's Republic which drove her entrepreneur father and grandma to suicide in May 2018. I've ordered a CID re-investigation of the case."

In the remand copy, Raigad police mentions that the previous investigating officer had filed a 'A summary' report in the case on April 16, 2019. But after deceased Anvay Naik's wife Akshata Naik took an objection to the report filed and sought for the case to be re-investigated, all the papers submitted in the court were looked into thoroughly and certain discrepancies were found in the previous investigation. Therefore, the concerned IG of Konkan region initiated an internal enquiry against Inspector Suresh Warade and the case was reopened on October 15, 2020.

Police claim to have found new evidence in the case which needs to be investigated, for which the custody is necessary. Around 2,11,686 files found in Anvay Naik's laptop which has been sent for analysis. According to the police, Goswami has said that the work done by Anvay Naik was not upto the mark and hence he had changed the vendor in between.

Thus, police are investigating the claims made in the case and the contract details between all three accused and Anvay Naik. The remand copy also states that mobile phone of Anvay Naik has been sent for chemical analysis as it has a pattern lock and could not be opened. The bank account details and the financial transactions will also be investigated.

According to the police, complainant family members were also being threatened to withdraw the case and accept money from Arnab Goswami.