The Bombay High Court hearing the Television Rating Points manipulation case said on Thursday that investigating agencies must stop investigation at a reasonable point.
A bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and Manish Pitale, commenting on the delay in the probe by the Mumbai Police, said an investigation can’t go on forever. “The Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, State police, all should act with reasonableness, objective assessment. They should not appear to be another form of trouble.”
The Bench was hearing a plea filed by ARG Outlier Media Private Limited Group, Republic TV and Arnab Goswami seeking to quash the FIR registered by the Mumbai Crime Branch.
Senior advocate Ashok Mundargi, appearing for the channel and the Group that owns the channel, reiterated that even after two chargesheets, Mr. Goswami and other employees of the channel were only “suspects” and not “accused”.
“The investigation is going on for the last three months,” the court said. “We don’t see anything that has surfaced on record to array the petitioners as accused.
“At which point will the officer say there is reason to believe that there is reason to arrest? If the State is really reasonable, the State should say, ‘we will complete our investigation within say 30 days’. That is how reasonableness is shown.”
The court went on to say economic offences were not like committing murder, where agencies must take time to complete the investigations. They could not hold people as accused and claim they have evidence. “You cannot have it both ways... If you have evidence, make them an accused so that they know what kind of relief can be granted against them.”
The arguments will continue on March 22.
