Arnab seeks stay to filing of chargesheet in suicide case
Republic TV editor-in-chief ArnabGoswami on Thursday filed an urgent application before theBombay High Court, seeking a stay to the filing of chargesheetand further proceedings in the 2018 Anvay Naik abetment tosuicide case.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who orderedre-investigation by the state CID, had no power to do so asthe previous probe by the Alibaug police in Raigad districthad been closed last year, it said.
Goswami, one of the accused in the case which is beingre-investigated, was arrested by Alibaug police last monthbefore the Supreme Court granted him bail.
Stating that his arrest on November 4 was illegal,Goswami in his plea also urged the HC to transfer theinvestigation to the CBI or any other independent agency.
The Maharashtra government in May this year ordered areinvestigation out of vendetta, the petition alleged.
“The Home Department…or any other governmentauthority does not have the power to order a reinvestigationor fresh investigation in a case where an `A summary report(clsoure report) is filed and the same is accepted by theChief Judicial Magistrate,” the petition said.
Deshmukh announced at a press conference in Novemberthat a “strong chargesheet” would be filed against Goswami,which showed that the state machinery was interfering in thecase with a “malafide premeditated diktat to the lawand order officers”, it said.
The re-investigation could not have been orderedwithout a judicial sanction and hence, the CID probe isillegal and “abuse of the process of law”, Goswami said.
The announcement of reinvestigation reeked of the”malice, spiteful nature and vendetta of the politicaldispensation” in Maharashtra, the petition claimed.
Goswami also sought permission to amend his mainpetition seeking quashing of the FIR. He wanted to addarguments against the state home departments letter of May 26which announced re-investigation and about which he learntonly last month, he said.
Interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naikcommitted suicide in 2018, allegedly because of non-paymentof dues by firms of Goswami and two others.
After the alleged abetment to suicide case wasreopened, Goswami and other two were arrested on November 4,but the Supreme Court granted them bail on November 11.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)