Suicide abetment case: Magistrate takes cognizance of charge sheet against Goswami

The Alibag Court has taken notice of the charge-sheet filed by Mumbai Police naming Republic TV Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami and two others as the main accused in the suicide-abetment case of Anvay Naik.

The three main accused are Goswami, Niteish Sarda of Smartworks Media and Feroz Shaikh of Icast/Skimedia. The magistrate also passed an order to summon all three of them before the court on January 7th 2021.

Goswami's lawyers have been given leave to challenge the charge sheet by the Bombay High Court and will be amending their petition to add the charge-sheet to it. The HC bench ordered a copy of the charge-sheet to be supplied to Goswami's counsel.

The charge-sheet filed by the Raigad police against Goswami and the others in 2018 states that interior designer Anvay Naik was under "immense mental stress", allegedly due to non-payment of dues from the accused.

"Although the deceased consistently informed the accused about this and, in the end, signalled to them about his intention to commit suicide, the accused said 'do what you want' and did not pay his dues compelling him to commit suicide," the charge sheet says.