Questioning the conduct of Mumbai police, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday granted transit anticipatory bail for 20 days to Priya Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of M/s ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd. that runs Republic TV network, Mumbai, in the ‘fake’ television rating points (TRP) case.
Justice H.P Sandesh passed the order on a petition filed by Ms. Mukherjee, who had come to Bengaluru to attend to her ailing father.
The court questioned the need for the Mumbai police to rush to Bengaluru after she attended questioning sessions by Mumbai police on November 17 and 18 and even after she had informed them she would be visiting Bengaluru to attend to her ailing father and would be available for questioning on November 24.
While turning down the claim of Mumbai police that they apprehended that she has ‘absconded’ as she had not mentioned when she would be back, the court said that no proper answer was forthcoming from the police on why they came to Bengaluru on November 20, the need for visiting her parents’ house, and to summon her to Bannerghatta police station without stating reason in the notice.
The court also did not accept the contention of Mumbai police that she could not have approached the Karnataka HC when the Bombay High Court had seized of the matter after her counsel pointed out that she had not filed petition before the Bombay HC as such a petition was filed by Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV. Taking note of how Mumbai police acted, Justice Sandesh observed that that there is reasonable apprehension of the arrest of the petitioner and she was justified in knocking the doors of the court when her personal liberty was at stake. It was alleged in the petition that the police are after her to elicit a response from her against Mr. Goswami in the case and apprehended arrest despite she having informed them on her Bengaluru visit.
The court gave her liberty to approach the appropriate legal forum on expiry of 20-days and directed Mumbai police to release her, if she is arrested, on she furnishing a bond for ₹2 lakh.
