The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Alibaug has authorized the Police to interrogate Arnab Goswami as well as the two other accused in the case of abetment to Anvay Naik’s suicide. On Monday, the CJM granted the Police to interrogate the accused daily for three hours.
Police arrested Republic TV’s Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami from his Lower Parel house last Wednesday. The police charged Goswami and two others, Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sharda with allegedly abetting the suicide of a 53-year old architect, Anvay Naik. The Police have sent Goswami to judicial custody. They also aim to acquire the magistrate’s permission to interrogate him and the two others. According to reports, the Police have said that without police custody, the probe would be halted as their revision application against judicial custody grant before the sessions court was unsettled.
Under the law, the Police don’t have ingress over an accused who is kept in jail custody without an official court order. Therefore, the court permitted the Police to question the three. A squad of 10 members from Raigarh Police interrogated Arnab Goswami on Monday. The Police also interrogated the two others. Inspector Jamil Shaikh said that they have boarded all three of them in Taloja jail for three hours. He part of Raigarh’s Crime Branch and is also the Investigating Officer on the case. He also said that three teams have interrogated Arnab Goswami, Feroz Shaikh, and Nitesh Sharda in the afternoon.
Inspector Shaikh said that interrogating the accused Arnab Goswami lodged at Taloja jail would be a time-consuming affair. This was because they would have to travel daily for two hours from Alibaug to reach Taloja jail. He also said that would have to put restrictions and question him only for three hours as per the orders of the CJM.
Police have shifted Arnab Goswami to Taloja Central Jail
inspector Shaikh also said, “Police custody would be convenient to carry out the interrogation.”
Raigarh Police shifted Arnab Goswami, Shaikh, and Sharda to Taloja Central Prison on Sunday. This was after the Police asserted that Goswami was active on social media via the phone. This was while he was in judicial custody at the makeshift quarantine centre at Alibaug Civic School.
Defence Counsel Vijay Aggarwal proclaimed in a lengthy court battle for his client Sarda. This happened in the hearing on the Police’s revision application before sessions court challenging the rejection of a 14-day custody plea.
The reports say that Aggarwal’s dispute consisted of the maintainability of the revision application, which also sought orders to forbade the magistrate from hearing and passing bail orders on the matter. According to the source, Aggarwal quoted three SC judgments to state that the remand order was interlocutory and hence no revision plea could be entertained. Special Public Prosecutor, in return, cited a judgment from the Gujarat HC. This judgment described what SC meant. Which is to argue that it was a final order of remand. And hence the revision plea ought to be heard on merit.
Aabad Ponda, Arnab Goswami’s counsel disputed that the court should hear both the revision and bail applications simultaneously. According to the reports, the sessions court would first pass orders on Aggarwal’s raised issues. His raised issues are on preliminary maintainability on the revision plea on Tuesday. Additionally, it also mentioned that the court would also take up the bail pleas on the same day.
Source: Times of India
