[BREAKING] Give three days' prior notice if Arnab Goswami is to be arrested in TRP scam case: Bombay High Court to Mumbai Police

In a major relief to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered that the Mumbai Police should give three days' prior notice if they want to arrest the journalist in the TRP scam case..The Bench headed by Justice SS Shinde also ordered that the probe against Republic TV should be completed within 12 weeks. .The order comes in the petition filed by ARG Outlier Media (holding company of Republic TV channels) challenging the criminal proceedings initiated against its channel and employees in the TRP scam..The Bench including Justice Manish Pitale had during the course of hearing expressed their reservation in granting the relief prayed for the in the plea considering the channel and Goswami were not named as accused in the FIR or even in the chargesheet..After the Chief Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare informed the Court about the timeline which the investigating officer required to complete the investigation, the Court clarified that the statement of "no-coercive action" made by the police for the "chaalak-maalak-sambandhit vyakti" could no longer continue..The Court indicated that in the event they wanted to summon anyone from the company, the statement could not be continued. However they clarified that if they do summon Goswami for interrogation, and during the course of investigation they come across material that requires his arrest, they had to give him a prior notice. .Senior Advocate Ashok Mundargi submitted to the Court that he wanted to make submissions to the effect that the facts in the case point out that Republic is not even involved and that the investigation can even be stayed. .However, the Court clarified that since neither the channel nor Goswami are made accused yet and there is no clarity from the investigating agency on the status of whether they will be made accused or not, the investigation would not be stayed at this stage..During the course of the hearing of the plea in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam case the Court observed that despite investigating the matter for over three months, the Mumbai Police had not unearthed any evidence against Republic channel..Mundargi attempted to show malafides on the part of the Mumbai Police during the investigation. His contention was that the malafides in the case were overbearing on the merits of the case and statement of the witnesses..Having heard the submissions by Mundargi, the Court demanded why the Goswami or any of the Republic TV journalists, have not yet been named as accused in the matter. .In view thereof, the Court mused what kind of protection can be granted to the petitioners or whether the petitioners could even ask for appointment of another investigation agency. .The judges' apprehension was that since the investigation was ongoing and the State had clarified that they will be pursuing the probe against the petitioners, they could not intervene in the case..Before adjourning the previous hearing, the Court had directed Thakare to get instructions from the investigating officer on the time limit for completing the investigation..Mundargi was assisted by Advocate Niranjan Mundargi who were briefed by Advocates Zoeb Cutlerywala, Vikram Kamath, Pinak Bhagwat from Phoenix Legal..[Read order here]