The Bombay High Court on Monday refused interim bail to journalist Arnab Goswami, who is under 14-day judicial custody in relation to a 2018 abetment to suicide case, reported Bar & Bench. The court had not given interim relief to Goswami on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and had reserved its orders.

A bench of SS Shinde and MS Karnik said Goswami can approach the sessions court at Alibaug in Maharashtra’s Raigad district for a regular bail and clarified that its observations are prima facie. It also said that the decision will not have any effect on the Sessions Court’s proceedings. The court also said that application in the Sessions Court will have to be decided in four days.

“No prima facie case has been made out by petitioner for invoking extra-ordinary jurisdiction...We had observed that he has remedy before the Sessions Court, the same can be availed and any observations made in our order is only for the limited purpose of this application,” the judges observed.

Following the decision, Goswami has already moved the Sessions Court, according to Bar & Bench.

Goswami had sought immediate release from detention through his plea and also challenged the legality of his arrest on November 4. He had asserted that the state government and Maharashtra Police were acting out of vendetta against him.

The journalist and two other people – Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda – are alleged to have failed to pay money they owed to an interior designer named Anvay Naik, managing director of Concorde Designs Private Limited. Naik and his mother were found dead in their home in Kavir village near Mumbai in 2018. A suicide note said that the Goswami, Shaikh and Sarda had not paid dues amounting to Rs 5.4 crore.