The chief judicial magistrate's court at Alibag on Friday reportedly allowed police officials investigating Republic TV Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in relation to a suicide abetment case, to question him for three hours daily in Taloja prison. Live Law reported that a sessions court will hear the revision petition filed by Raigad police seeking Goswami’s custody.
Taloja prison is around 50km from Mumbai in Raigad district.
Bombay High Court on Monday refused to grant bail to Goswami. A division bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik said "no case was made out in the present matter for the high court to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction.” However, the high court noted that the petitioner (Goswami) has the remedy under law to approach the sessions court concerned and seek regular bail.
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Meanwhile, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday said that relatives of inmates lodged in the state’s jails cannot meet them in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. This comes as Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had earlier requested Deshmukh to allow relatives of arrested television journalist Arnab Goswami to meet him in prison. The governor had earlier conveyed to Deshmukh his concern over the manner in which Goswami was arrested.
Goswami and two others - Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda - were arrested by Alibaug police in 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.
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After his arrest from his residence in Mumbai, Goswami was taken to Alibaug, where the chief judicial magistrate remanded him and the two others in judicial custody till November 18. Goswami was then kept at a local school which has been designated as a Covid-19 centre for the Alibaug prison.
On Sunday, he was shifted to Taloja jail in Raigad district after allegedly being found using a mobile phone while in judicial custody.
(With PTI inputs)
