By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Dec 9:
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a petition filed by Republic TV and its Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami seeking protection for all the employees of the news channel from alleged coercive action by Maharashtra Police.
The plea alleging continuous hounding of Republic TV and its employees by the Maharashtra Police and seeking a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was withdrawn after a Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud remarked that it was “ambitious in nature”.
In view of the court’s refusal to entertain the petition, Goswami’s counsel, Senior Advocate Milind Sathe then chose to withdraw the plea after the Court granted liberty to Goswami and Republic TV to move appropriate forum for relief.
Besides the case in Alibaug court, related to Goswami’s alleged involvement in the Anvay Naik Suicide Case, the Mumbai police have also registered cases in TRP fraud “against Republic TV employees. Besides an FIR related to defamatory program against Mumbai Police Chief Parambir Singh, aired on Republic TV in October last, has also been registered against some of its employees. Goswami wanted a blanket protection against all these cases.
Goswami has filed another petition in the Bombay High Court seeking directions to Alibaug court, not to take cognizance of the charge sheet filed against him and two others in the Anvay Naik Suicide Case. The petition is expected to come up for hearing this week.
Goswami has argued that no cognizance of the chargesheet recently filed by the Raigad police should be taken since the Raigad police had filed a closure report in 2018. The entire case reeks with malafide on part of the Maharashtra Government and is an example of the Executive’s interference via ‘premeditated diktat’ to law and order officers, he said.
There is a “well- documented pattern of interference” in the present case on the part of the Home Department of Maharashtra and the reinvestigation was launched based on Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s letter dated 26 May 2020. Besides Deshmukh had also made anti remarks Minister’s remarks on the floor of the Maharashtra Assembly on 08 September, 2020 Goswami alleged.
In the meanwhile, the Raigad Police has filed a 1,914 pages long charge sheet against Goswami and two others, before a court in Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district, where the case for alleged abetment of suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud has been registered. The trio has been charged under IPC sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 109 (punishment for abetment) and 34 (act done by several people in furtherance of common intention. The trial has already began in Alibaug.
Goswami was arrested on 04 November and was remanded to judicial custody by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alibag. Initially he was kept at a local school, been designated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison. Later he was shifted to Taloja jail on the allegations that he was shifted to Taloja prison near Panvel, after the police alleged that he used mobile phone in custody without permission.
He was released on Bail by the Supreme Court on 11 November, observing that prima facie it cannot be said that he was guilty of having abetted the suicide of the architect Anvay Naik(52), within the meaning of Section 306 of the IPC.
