The municipal school in Alibaug where Arnab Goswami is lodged. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami (47), arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of an interior designer, spent his first night in judicial custody in a one-storey municipal school that has been turned into a makeshift Covid-19 quarantine centre for the Alibaug prison in Raigad.
On Wednesday, hearing of Goswami’s remand application had dragged on for over six hours, running late in the night, before the magistrate court in Alibaug decided to send him to 14-day judicial custody. Soon after the hearing ended, Goswami was taken back to Alibaug police station, from where he was shifted to the school.
The Alibaug municipal council primary school, which is 15 minutes away from the police station, is being guarded by several police personnel. Entry to outsiders has been restricted.
An officer said that in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, every newly arrested person is initially quarantined at the school before being sent to jail. Goswami, along with his two co-accused, will be lodged in the school at least till the Bombay High Court hears his bail plea on Friday, the officer added.
Goswami’s counsel, who had moved a bail application in the Alibaug court soon after it sent him to 14-day judicial custody, decided to withdraw the plea on Thursday.
The lawyers said as there was neither a confirmed date set for the bail hearing nor a deadline announced for the police to submit their say in the case, it was decided to withdraw the bail application from the magistrate court.
“There was no reasonable time stated by the court… after I reached court, we learnt that they (police) are not going to file their say today, so, we had kept an application for interim relief ready, which we could submit at Bombay High Court,” said lawyer Gaurav Parkar.
Further, the Alibaug police on Thursday evening filed a revision petition challenging the magistrate court’s order rejecting their police custody remand of Goswami and the other accused.