Why Maharashtra rushed to file charge sheet against Arnab: Fadnavis

Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday questioned the "hurry" showed by the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in filing a charge sheet against television journalist Arnab Goswami in an abetment to suicide case despite observations made by the Supreme Court.

The police on Friday filed the charge sheet before a court in Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district, where the case for alleged abetment of suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother has been registered.

"Despite the prima facie observations by Hon Supreme Court on applicability of abetment of suicide in Arnab Goswami case and subsequent application by him before Hon HC for stay on probe, why has MVA Government hurriedly filed the chargesheet?

"Isn't this a mockery of Supreme Court's judgement? Are they again trying to suppress personal liberty?" the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly questioned in his tweets.

Besides Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV, the other two accused named in the charge sheet are Firoze Sheikh and Nitish Sarda.

Police had earlier said that in his suicide note, Naik, who owned Concorde Designs Pvt Ltd, had claimed that he was ending his life due to non-payment of dues by Goswami, Firoze Sheikh of IcastX/Skimedia and Nitish Sarda of Smartworks.

"It seems that MVA Government has not learnt any lesson from the two strongly worded judgements delivered on the very same day this govt completed 1 year," Fadnavis tweeted.

The Supreme Court had last month questioned the Maharashtra government over the abetment to suicide case against Goswami and said it would be a travesty of justice if personal liberty of a person is curtailed like this.