After the Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV Arnab Goswami was taken into custody by the Maharashtra Police on November 4, his hopes of breathing in fresh air were dealt a big blow by the Bombay High Court on November 9, when his application for interim relief/bail was refused by the division bench of Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice M.S. Karnik. Bail denied.
The High Court suggested Arnab Goswami should approach the Sessions Court for regular bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973.
The High Court however has directed that the Sessions Court, if a petition for bail is filed therein, to decide any such petition within four days of the filing of the said petition.
Arnab Goswami has already filed a petition for (regular) bail in the Sessions Court at Alibaug.
The Judges, in a 56 page long judgement order went on to note that:
“No prima facie case has been made out by petitioner for invoking extra-ordinary jurisdiction…We had observed that he has remedy before the Sessions Court, the same can be availed and any observations made in our order is only for the limited purpose of this application.”
It is worth mentioning that the judges had expressed the same view in their interim order dated 7 November after a marathon hearing which lasted until 11.30 PM.
Paragraph 4 of the Order read as below:
We make it clear that, pendency of the present writ petition/application for interim protection shall not be construed as an impediment to the Petitioner/Applicant, in case the Petitioner/Applicant if so advised, to avail of an appropriate remedy by way of filing an application for regular bail by invoking Section 439 Cr.P.C. In case such application is filed, the concerned Court shall decide the same on its own merits, after hearing all the parties as expeditiously as possible, however, within four days from filing such application.
(Justice Shinde & Justice Karnik)
Clearly, the judges were minded to deny Arnab’s application as the hearing progressed.
Not only Arnab’s bail plea was denied, the Court also granted opportunity to the informant, Akshata Naik, who is the wife of Anvay Naik, to make her submissions in the matter.
Arnab Goswami’s main plea challenging the arrest and seeking directions to quash the FIR of 2018 will be heard by the Court on December 10, 2020.
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