Mumbai: Republic TV Editor-in Chief Arnab Goswami has petitioned the Bombay High Court challenging his “illegal arrest” in a 2018 case of abetment of suicide of an interior designer, and sought quashing of the FIR lodged against him by Alibaug police in Maharashtra.
A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik will hear the plea on Thursday afternoon.
Goswami was arrested on Wednesday from his residence at Lower Parel in Mumbai for allegedly abetting the suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik, and was taken to the Alibaug police station in neighbouring Raigad district.
He was later produced before a magistrate’s court in Alibaug which remanded him in judicial custody till November 18.
Goswami is currently kept at a local school which has been designated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison.
In his petition, Goswami has challenged his “illegal arrest” and sought an urgent order of stay in the investigation into the case and also a direction to the police to release him immediately.
The plea has also sought the FIR against him to be quashed.
It alleged that Goswami was assaulted by the police team that barged into his house on Wednesday.
“He has been wrongly and illegally arrested in a motivated, false and closed case. This is another attempt of political witch-hunt and vendetta politics against the petitioner and his channel,” the petition said.
“The arrest was conducted in blatant violation of the fundamental rights to life and personal liberty of the petitioner (Goswami) and his dignity. The petitioner and his son were assaulted and dragged into the police van when Goswami was arrested,” it added.
As per the plea, the investigation into the case was closed last year and a closure report was filed which was accepted by Chief Judicial Magistrate of the Alibaug court by an order dated April 16, 2019.
“It is shocking that a case that was decisively closed has been reopened with the sole purpose of misusing power, concocting facts and forcibly arresting the petitioner in a prime facie act of revenge and vengeance for his news coverage which questioned those in power in Maharashtra,” the petition said.
The petition claimed that in May 2018, the police had recorded the statements of Goswami and two senior officials of the Republic TV and after conducting a thorough investigation, the case was closed.
“The petitioner had at that time provided detailed documents to the police in relation to the business transactions with the deceased’s company and had fully cooperated in the matter,” the petition said.
It also said Goswamis company ARG Outlier Pvt Ltd had paid over 90 per cent of the amount due to the deceased Anvay Naiks company Concorde Designs, as per the contract.
“In July 2019, the entire balance amount due was transferred to the bank account of Naik’s company but the amount returned because the account was inoperative,” the petition said.
It said the petitioner has been fully cooperating with the police in the past and will continue doing so in future also. (AGENCIES)

ALIBAUG: Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of an interior designer, spent the night at a local school which has been designated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison, an official said on Thursday.
A court at Alibaug in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Wednesday remanded Goswami and two other accused in judicial custody till November 18 in a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
Police had sought Goswami’s custody for 14 days, but the court held that custodial interrogation was not required.
On Wednesday night, Goswami was taken for medical examination at a state-run hospital in the coastal town, the official said.
After the medical exam, he was taken to Alibaug Nagar Parishad School, which is designated as a COVID-19 centre of the Alibaug prison, and he spent the night there, the official said.
Goswami and the two others were booked under section 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and Naik’s mother over alleged non-payment of dues by Republic TV.
The other two arrested accused in the case, Feroze Mohammed Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda, were also produced in the Alibaug court on Wednesday and remanded to judicial custody till November 18.
Naik, in his purported suicide note, had mentioned the names of Goswami, Shaikh and Sarda, police said, adding the note was sent to handwriting experts in Pune and a report is awaited.
Hearing on Goswami’s bail application will be on Thursday at Alibaug court, an official said.
Goswami had on November 2 filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR in the case. It will be heard by a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik on Thursday.
A team of Raigad police picked up Goswami (47) from his Lower Parel house in Mumbai on Wednesday morning. He was seen being pushed into the police van, and claimed that he was assaulted by police before being taken away.
Goswami was produced in a court in Alibaug, around 90 km from Mumbai, and was remanded to judicial custody till November 18. The court ruling came shortly after 11 pm.
Mumbai police have registered an FIR against Goswami, his wife, son and two others for “obstructing, assaulting, verbally abusing and intimidating” a police officer on duty and for tearing up “government papers” (arrest intimation) at his house, the official said.
The FIR was registered at the N M Joshi Marg police station on Wednesday under sections 353, 504, 506 of IPC and section 3 of the Damage of Public Property Act, the official said. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: A layer of haze lingered over the national capital and its suburbs on Thursday morning, with raging farm fires and a fall in the wind speed and temperatures pushing air quality to the worst levels in around a year.
As the skies hung heavy and acrid over the region, people complained of itchy throat and watery eyes.
Experts said unfavourable meteorological conditions — calm winds and low temperatures — and smoke from farm fires in neighbouring states led to a dense layer of haze on Wednesday night as the air quality index entered the “severe” zone.
PM10 levels in Delhi-NCR stood at 561 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3) at 8 am — the highest since November 15 last year, when it was 637 µg/m3, according to CPCB data. PM10 levels below 100 µg/m3 are considered safe in India.
PM10 is particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers which is inhalable. These particles include dust, pollen and mold spores.
The levels of PM2, finer particles which can even enter the bloodstream, were 347 µg/m3. PM2.5 levels up to 60 µg/m3 are considered safe.
On Wednesday evening, the noxious haze reduced visibility to merely 600 metres at the Safdarjung Observatory, smudging landmarks from view. It was 1,200 metres on Thursday morning.
If this was not enough, a large number of people across Dehi-NCR burst firecrackers to mark the festival of Karwa Chauth.
“People are bursting crackers and it is not even Diwali yet. The city has already become a gas chamber. This happens every year. For how long will this continue,” asked Shiv Shrivastava, a resident of south Delhi.
“I can feel the pollutants in my throat despite wearing a mask. My eyes are burning. It is going to make the pandemic worse. I am scared,” said Piyush Vohra, a resident of Jangpura.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum wind speed was 5 kilometres per hour on Thursday morning and the minimum temperature 11.2 degrees Celsius. Calm winds and low temperatures trap pollutants close to the ground, while favourable wind speed helps in their dispersion.
Health experts said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, air pollution has become a serious health concern for about the two crore residents of the national capital.
According to a doctor at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, intake of every 22 micrograms per cubic metre of polluted air is equivalent to smoking a cigarette.
Ajit Jain, the nodal officer for COVID-19 at Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, said air pollution was turning the pandemic catastrophic.
IMD officials said sudden change in the wind pattern led to “subsidence” — the downward movement of air over a large area when it cools and becomes heavier.
“The wind speed slowed down suddenly after 10 am in the Delhi-NCR region. The temperatures have dipped alarmingly over the last few days,” V K Soni, the head of IMD’s environment monitoring research centre, said.
The haze was primarily smoke from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana. Unfavourable meteorological conditions trapped it in Delhi-NCR, he said.
Delhi recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 461 at 8 am. It was 279 at 10 am on Wednesday.
All the 36 monitoring stations recorded the air quality in the ”severe” category.
The neighbouring cities of Faridabad (431), Ghaziabad (484), Greater Noida (463), Gurugram (440) and Noida (461) also recorded ”severe” levels of air pollution.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
Stubble burning accounted for 40 per cent of Delhi”s pollution on Sunday, the maximum so far this season.
Last year, the farm fire contribution to Delhi”s pollution had peaked to 44 per cent on November 1, according to SAFAR data. (agencies)