The Maharashtra government has filed an application in the Supreme Court on behalf of Deputy Commissioner of Mumbai (Zone III) stating that Republic TV Editor-IN-Chief Arnab Goswami has abused the interim protection granted to him by the Apex Court by browbeating the Mumbai Police and creating a fear psychosis.
The Apex Court on 24th April has granted Goswami three weeks’ protection from arrest in relation to the FIRs that were filed against him, directing a stay on proceedings on all FIRs except the primary one filed in Nagpur. The Court had also transferred the FIR filed in Nagpur to Mumbai and had directed the investigation to be carried out on the attack made against him.
The application states that Goswami, after the investigation started on his channel Republic Bharat that the police was biased, that the police interrogated him regarding the FIR filed against him by Congress leader Nitin Raut but did not investigate the FIR lodged by him. He contended that the police were covering up the matter and refused to register either assault or conspiracy.
The organisation had also tweeted through the official handle with allegations against the police stating that they were biased and unnecessarily questioned the petitioner for many hours. According to the Government, these tweets created an impression that the police are biased against the petitioner, the police are investigating only the FIR against him, and that police was covering up for the FIR registered by Goswami
The Government in the application has also stated that Goswami being unsatisfied with the interrogation hosted a debate on his channel where he made false statements against the Commissioner of the Mumbai Police alleging that he had suppressed Goswami’s FIR and he was involved with India Bulls, which is a scam and that the petitioner was investigating India bulls.
The Application has been filed through Advocate Sachin Patil seeking intervention of the Court to refrain Goswami from abusing the interim protection granted to him. It is a fit case where the court should take serious cognizance of the endeavours made by the petitioner to interfere with the investigation by the police and the endeavours made by the petitioner to browbeat the police officers.He has abused the journalistic freedom available to him under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution, and his conduct tantamounts to encroaching upon the area of investigation as also subjecting the entire criminal justice system to ridicule.
The Government has also prayed for directions to insulate the investigating agency from any pressure, threat or coercion from Goswami and to enable the investigating agency to carry out its lawful obligations.
-India Legal Bureau