MUMBAI: It is yet another day for Arnab Goswami with no relief from the Bombay High Court. On Saturday after a day-long special hearing via video-conferencing, HC reserved his plea for interim bail for final orders.The HC bench however in an interim order, said that pending the petition, Goswami could invoke section 439 of Criminal Procedure Code and apply for bail before the sessions court in the meantime. If he does file for such bail, the sessions court can decide it expeditiously, “in four days, after hearing all parties.” All parties would include the state, police and victim, the widow of interior designer Anvay Naik whose 2018 suicide abetment, Goswami and two others are accused of and arrested for.
The HC fixed no date for pronouncement of the judgment, but a bench of Justices S S Shinde and MS Karnik who had given a patient hearing for three days, said it would try and do it as early as possible.The HC order could mean at least three more nights in custody, since his bail plea before sessions court can only be filed on Monday and hearing all sides may take at least one more day.Pendency of the petition will also not preclude Nitesh Sarda to make a bail application before the sessions court in the 2018 Anvay Naik suicide abetment case.
The quashing petition filed by Goswami, will next be heard on December 10, before the HC.On Saturday, senior counsel for the Maharashtra government in Goswami’s plea for interim release, said “Power of State to direct investigation is distinct from power of court.”Amit Desai, appearing fo the Maharashtra government also stressed that an ‘A’ summary (true, but undetected) closure has to be treated differently. He pointed out that there is challenge to the fact that it was categorised an ‘A’ summary which only means that investigation is incomplete or inclusive and hence arguments of Goswami’s counsels Harish Salve and Aabad Ponda that there is a need for a “court nod for further probe” is wrong.
