Arnab Goswami’s arrest in suicide case appears illegal, observes court

The chief judicial Justice of the Peace court docket has noticed that the arrest of Arnab Goswami and two others appeared unlawful in reference to the suicide of 53-year-old inside designer Anvay Naik and his mom Kumud Naik, whereas rejecting the plea of the prosecution for his or her custodial interrogation.

In May 2018, nearly a 12 months after Republic TV was launched, Naik, and his mom had been discovered lifeless at their farmhouse in Kavir village of Alibag taluka.

Naik’s spouse Akshata, 48, had then registered a criticism. A suicide word was discovered, police stated, during which Naik alleged that he and his mom had been pressured to finish their lives as a result of he was not paid dues amounting to Rs 5.40 crore by Goswami, Shaikh and Sarda.

The Alibag police on Wednesday arrested Goswami, Republic TV’s editor-in-chief, Feroz Shaikh, proprietor of IcastX/Skimedia, and Nitesh Sarda, proprietor of Smartwork. The prosecution sought their most custody for additional investigation. The plea was turned down by chief judicial Magistrate, Alibaug, Raigad – Sunayana S Pingale.

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In her order, the decide stated, “In view of the objections raised by the defense lawyers and grounds raised by the prosecution to seek police custody, the arrest itself appears illegal. After the careful screening of the document it appears that the connection between the incident which took place at that time, death of two persons, the relation between the deceased and their connection with the accused should have been determined before seeking police custody. Only if this chain of circumstances is intact, the connection of the incident with the accused can be established to seek police custody of the accused.”

The Justice of the Peace court docket raised critical questions on the speculation of suicide of Naik’s mom. The court docket questioned that if the prosecution case is believed to be true there isn’t a motive established for the loss of life of Naik’s mom.

“Even if it is considered that the accused had to pay money to the deceased Anvay Naik and the other contractors were pestering him for payment, he was depressed, the question remains why did his mother Kumud Naik decide to end her life? The prosecution has no satisfactory answer on this issue. The chain of circumstances, between the death of Kumud and Anvay Naik, the reason behind their death and its connection with the accused is not completely established,” reads the order in Marathi.

The court docket additionally raised questions on the choice for additional investigation. The prosecution has didn’t put forth grounds on why the earlier investigation is incomplete and what points remained for additional investigation, the court docket added.

“There is no prima facie intact chain of circumstances to connect the accused with the incident to send the accused to police custody. Hence the police had closed the case for want of evidence. The said closure report has not been challenged or set aside by any higher court and is still in existence. In such circumstances, there are no reasonable grounds to remand the accused to police custody,” reads the court docket order.