SC to take up plea by Arnab Goswami against fresh FIR

The Supreme Court is going to consider on Monday a plea by Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for quashing a fresh FIR registered against him at Mumbai on May 2 in relation to a show telecast on April 14-15.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah would also take up a plea by the Maharashtra government to take a "serious cognisance" of endeavour made by Goswami to allegedly interfere with the investigation and browbeat police officers in an FIR lodged against him for promoting enmity among others.

The top court had on April 24 granted him interim protection of three weeks and stayed any coercive actions against him in over 100 FIRs registered across the country. However, it had asked him to cooperate in one FIR initially registered in Nagpur and subsequently transferred to Mumbai.

The cases were triggered after Goswami on April 21 questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi's silence in the lynching of two Hindu seers and their driver in Palghar on April 16.

However, on May 2, a fresh case was lodged against him with Pydhonie Police Station, Mumbai, based on a complaint filed by one Irfan Abubakar Shaikh with regard to a programme on "fake migrant crisis in Maharashtra in relation to gathering in Bandra".

In his writ petition, Goswami said the instant FIR was a part of a well-coordinated and orchestrated, widespread and malicious

campaign to coerce and harass him by the Mumbai Police, the Congress party and Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government also approached the top court to restrain Goswami from "abusing" interim protection of three weeks granted to him on April 24.

It claimed the tweets and debate by his TV showed that he was not cooperating with the investigation and on the contrary interfering with it. "By making personal allegations against the Mumbai Police commissioner, the petitioner is trying to intimidate the policy by implying that he will spare nobody and will launch an investigation against the police officers," it alleged.

Goswami had already faced over 12 hours of questioning by the Mumbai police earlier this month.