NEW DELHI, NOV 26
The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Friday its detailed reasoning for granting interim bail to journalist Arnab Goswami and two others in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.
On November 11, the top court had granted interim bail to Goswami saying it will be a “travesty of justice” if personal liberty is curtailed.
A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud will pronounce its reasoning in its verdict on Friday.
While expressing concern over State governments targeting some individuals based on ideology and difference of opinion, a vacation bench headed by Justice Chandrachud had said that the submissions of the lawyers appearing in the matter before it would be “evaluated in the judgment for which reasons shall follow”.
It had said that if state governments target individuals, they must realise then that there is an apex court to protect the liberty of citizens.
The top court had granted interim bail to two others in the case – Neetish Sarda and Feroz Mohammad Shaikh – on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each and directed that they shall not tamper with the evidence and shall cooperate in the probe It had said that the Bombay High Court “was in error” in rejecting the pleas filed by Goswami and these two persons seeking interim bail in the case.
“We are of the considered view that the high court was in error in rejecting the applications for the grant of interim bail. We accordingly order and direct that Arnab Manoranjan Goswami, Feroz Mohammad Shaikh, and Neetish Sarda shall be released on interim bail, subject to each of them executing a personal bond for Rs 50,000 to be executed before the Jail Superintendent,” the bench had said in its order.
The top court had directed the accused in the case to cooperate in the investigation and shall not make any attempt to interfere with the ongoing investigation or with the witnesses.
The apex court had passed the order on the appeals against the high court’s November 9 order rejecting the pleas, including that of Goswami, for grant of interim bail.
Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, has challenged the high court order refusing to grant interim bail and asking him to move the trial court for relief.
The accused were arrested by Alibaug police in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on November 4 in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused.
Apart from seeking interim bail, the journalist and other accused had also sought a direction from the high court for staying the investigation into the case and quashing the FIR against them.
The high court will hear their pleas seeking to quash the FIR on December 10. Goswami was arrested on November 4 from his Lower Parel residence in Mumbai and taken to Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district.
He and the two other accused were later produced before a magistrate who refused to send them in police custody and remanded them in judicial custody till November 18.
