Arnab seeks pre-arrest bail in case of ‘assault’ on woman cop

Mumbai, November 11

Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and his wife Samyabrata Ray Goswami on Wednesday approached a sessions court here seeking pre-arrest bail in a case registered against them for allegedly assaulting a woman police officer.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court granted Goswami interim bail in a case of alleged abetment to suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik in 2018. He was released from Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai late in the evening.

Last week, an FIR was registered against Goswami, his wife and his son at NM Joshi Marg police station for allegedly assaulting a woman police officer when a police team went to his house to arrest him in the suicide case on November 4.

Goswami and Samyabrata on Wednesday filed anticipatory bail pleas which are likely to be heard by additional sessions judge P B Jadhav on Thursday, court sources said.

Advocate Shyam Kalyankar, their lawyer, said Goswami and his wife had only verbally protested his “illegal arrest” from his Lower Parel house here last Wednesday.

“Neither Goswami nor his wife assaulted any police official. We are relying on several videos recorded in the morning of November 4 when the police barged into their house,” he said.

Around 40 armed police personnel were present at the time of the alleged incident, the lawyer claimed, asking “who will deter a public servant (from doing his duty) in the presence of such a huge number”.

“We were only protesting the illegal arrest,” Kalyankar said.

Goswami and his wife were booked under IPC sections 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and under the Damage to Public Property Act.

The complainant in the case is 49-year-old police officer Sujata Tanvade, who alleged that Goswami, his wife and son assaulted her on that day. --- PTI