Breaking: Arnab Goswami remanded to judicial custody for two weeks

A Maharshtra court on Wednesday remanded Republic TV Editor, Arnab Goswami to judicial custody for 14 days in the case relating to abetment of suicide of interior designer, Anvay Naik.The Magistrate Court at Alibaug passed the order in an FIR registered by Raigad Police based on a complaint by one Akshata Naik alleging that Goswami was responsible for the suicide of her husband, Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik who were directors of Concords Designs Pvt. Ltd..Goswami was arrested by the Raigad Police on Wednesday morning in the 2018 case which was reopened after two years by the State government. .[Breaking] Mumbai Police arrests Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.The Raigad Police had sought 14 days police custody of Goswami on the ground that charges against him are serious and he is an influential person necessitating his custody to carry out proper investigation.Raigad Police seeks 14 days' custody of Arnab Goswami.It was submitted that since May 2020 when the police investigation began, the investigation team has been getting significant evidence in support of the allegations in the complaint. .Goswami was taken to the Alibaug court on Wednesday afternoon wherein he submitted that he had been assaulted by the police in the morning and had, consequently, sustained injuries on his hand and neck..The court then directed the police to take him to a civil surgeon for medical examination and to produce him before the court after the same..Later, Arnab was again produced before the Magistrate when Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda appeared for him..Ponda made the following submissions in the hearing:The "A" Summary has been accepted by the Court on April 24, 2019 and then the case was closed. Thereafter an order to re-investigate was passed, but it was not brought on record.As the "A" summary report was accepted and became final, it was not challenged before any other court. Hence any further investigation by the Raigad police is illegal..The Court rejected all grounds raised by the police in their remand application. Therefore the plea for police custody was rejected..Advocate Gaurav Parkar, appearing for Goswami confirmed that a bail application has been filed for Goswami and would be heard in a day or two.He added that they will push for hearing of the bail application once the Investigating Officer and the Public Prosecutor have filed their replies to the application..Goswami has, meanwhile, approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of FIR and that plea is likely to come up for hearing on Thursday. .Deceased Anvay Naik allegedly left behind a suicide note in which he supposedly stated that his company, Concorde Designs Pvt. Ltd. was in financial difficulty and that certain people owed him money.As per the complaint, the suicide note mentioned the names of three persons from whom money was due and also stated that they were responsible for the suicide of Naik and his mother.In this regard, the following persons are stated to have been named:Arnab Goswami and ARG Outlier (the parent company of Republic TV), which allegedly owed Concorde Rs 83 lakh for a Bombay Dyeing Studio ProjectFeroz Shaikh, iCastX/Skimedia, which allegedly owed Rs 400 lakh for a project in Andheri.Nitesh Sarda, who allegedly owed Rs 55 lakhs for a pending project of Magarpatta and Baner.The Raigad Police, which was investigating the case had closed the investigation due to unavailability of evidence against all those accused in the FIR. The Police also filed a report before the Alibaug Court in April 2019, which was accepted by the Court.However, in May this year, Adnya Naik, daughter of Anvay Naik, approached Cabinet Minister for Home Affairs in Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh. The Minister was prompted to order re-investigation into the case by the CID..Goswami's arrest on Wednesday prompted strong reactions from BJP leaders including Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, Minister for Textiles and Women & Child Development, Smriti Irani and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who termed the actions of Maharashtra police as an affront to free speech.