Arnab Goswami sent to 14-day judicial remand, HC to hear plea today
The Raigad Police had sought 14-day police custody on the ground that charges against Arnab Goswami are serious and that he could influence the investigation. However, the court rejected all grounds raised by the police in their remand application.
FollowThe Magistrate Court at Maharashtra's Alibaug has sent Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami to 14-day judicial custody.Â
The court passed the order in an FIR registered by Raigad Police based on a complaint by one Akshata Naik alleging that Arnab Goswami was responsible for the suicide of her husband, Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik who were directors of Concords Designs Pvt. Ltd.
The Raigad Police had sought 14-day police custody on the ground that charges against Arnab Goswami are serious and that he could influence the investigation.
However, the court rejected all grounds raised by the police in their remand application.
Arnab Goswami's lawyer pleaded that order to re-investigate the case was passed in April 2019, but it was not brought on record and that since the earlier case summary report was not challenged in any court, any further investigation by the Raigad police is illegal.
The Bombay High Court, meanwhile, is set to hear the 47-year-old journalist's plea against his arrest later today.Â
The Mumbai police had on Wednesday registered an FIR against Goswami, his wife, son and two others for 'obstructing, assaulting, verbally abusing and intimidating' a police officer on duty and for tearing up 'government papers' (arrest intimation) at his house.Â
The FIR was registered at the N M Joshi Marg police station under sections 353, 504, 506 of IPC and section 3 of the Damage of Public Property Act.
The arrest comes in the middle of Arnab Goswami's row with the Mumbai Police over its investigations into a ratings scam and allegations that Republic TV is among three channels involved in manipulating TRPs or Television Rating Points by bribing households metred for viewership. He had accused the police of harassing his colleagues and pursuing a vendetta over his channel's criticism of Mumbai Police's handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
