Bombay High Court has directed the Mumbai police to give an advance notice to the Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in connection to the TRP manipulation scam. The court has directed the police to give a three day prior notice before arresting him.
The matter was heard by a division bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice Manish Pitale. The bench also accepted the Maharashtra government’s statement that the probe against Republic TV and other employees of the ARG Outlier Media which runs all Republic TV channels, and other television channels, will be completed within 12 weeks.
The orders were issued while hearing a bunch of pleas filed by Arnab Goswami and ARG Outlier media seeking several reliefs in the case.
All the petitioners had claimed that the crime branch of Mumbai police had no evidence and was merely prolonging the probe to name them as suspects in the chargesheet.
In the earlier hearing in the case on Monday, Bombay High Court told the police that it couldn’t go on investigating for months without naming someone as accused in the case.
Considering the material on record, HC noted that the police didn’t have anything substantial against Goswami.
Counsel Ashok Mundargi, appearing for the petitioners, had urged the court to protect Goswami and other ARG Outlier Media employees against any coercive action till the time probe is on.
The court stated that such relief cannot be granted to several unnamed employees in the petition, who were merely suspects and not accused.
The court stated that Mundargi’s request for a stay on the investigation could not be granted as there was no clarity on who was the accused and who was not.
“If during the course of the investigation, you come across something and you want to take coercive action against petitioner number 2, then you will give 72 hours’ prior notice,” said the court.
The Bombay High Court will continue to hear the matter on June 28.
