Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami after being released from Taloja Central Prison on Wednesday. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar)REPUBLIC TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami has sought anticipatory bail before the Mumbai sessions court seeking protection from arrest in the case filed by Mumbai Police for allegedly resisting arrest last week. The pre-arrest bail filed by Goswami and his wife, Samyabrata Ray Goswami, through lawyer Shyam Kalyankar is likely to be heard on Thursday.
The NM Joshi Marg police station had last week filed an FIR naming Goswami, his wife, son and others on charges including sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR claimed that Goswami and others tried to obstruct officials when they reached his residence to arrest him last Wednesday in an abetment to suicide case of interior designer Anvay Naik.
The anticipatory bail plea says that both the police team and those named in the FIR present at Goswami’s residence had video recorded the events at the time of the arrest. The plea says that the recordings would show that no such assault on the police took place.
The plea further says that Goswami and others were opposed to the arrest claiming that it was “illegal”. It says that the chief judicial magistrate court in Alibag, who later on the same day refused the Raigad police application seeking police custody, had observed that Goswami’s arrest was illegal in a case which was closed through an “A” summary report filed before the court last year.
The court’s order is challenged by the Raigad police before the sessions court in Alibag in a revision appeal which is likely to be decided on Thursday.
After his arrest, Goswami and his wife had also said that he was assaulted in his house by the team arresting him. The magistrate’s court, while refusing to grant police custody to the Raigad police stating that there were no sufficient grounds presented, had also rejected allegations made by Goswami of assault by the police following a check-up at the civil hospital in Alibag.
The FIR filed on the complaint of a woman police official stated that the police team at his residence was obstructed from carrying out their duty. The complaint also said that when a document to acknowledge the arrest was given to Goswami’s wife, she tore the document. The police had claimed that they were made to wait for an hour outside the residence and subsequently faced resistance from those present at his house.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Goswami and two others arrested in the case and ordered their release.