Alibaug court reserves order on cops’ plea for Arnab Goswami’s custody

THE ALIBAUG sessions court has reserved its order on the revision appeal filed by the Raigad police seeking to set aside the magistrate court’s order last week rejecting police custody of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and two others arrested on charges of abetment to suicide of an interior designer in 2018. The court is likely to pass the order on the appeal on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the court heard arguments from the lawyers representing the three accused as well as special public prosecutor, Pradip D Gharat. Senior advocate Aabad Ponda representing Goswami said that there were no grounds for the grant of police custody. He submitted that the transaction between Goswami’s company and the interior designer, Anvay Naik, was contractual and a dispute arising out of that should be before a civil court. He said that it could not be grounds for a criminal charge of instigating or abetting a person for suicide. He also submitted that Goswami had cooperated with the probe from 2018 and his statement was also recorded by the investigator. Ponda also submitted that as a news anchor Goswami “calls a spade, a spade” and the case was a means of silencing him.

SPP Gharat countered the submissions by stating that the fact that there was a suicide note naming the accused was a strong ground for grant of police custody. The Raigad police will be filing its response on Wednesday.