A sessions court in Mumbai on Thursday adjourned till November 23 the hearing of a pre-arrest bail plea filed by Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and his wife Samyabrata Ray in a first information report filed against them for allegedly assaulting a female police officer, PTI reported.

The plea could not be heard as the judge did not preside, the couple’s lawyer Shyam Kalyankar said. “We did not seek any interim protection from arrest today as we are waiting for the detailed order of the Supreme Court [passed on Wednesday granting bail to Goswami in another matter],” Kalyankar said.

The Mumbai Police had on November 4 lodged the complaint after Goswami allegedly assaulted the female police during the journalist’s arrest in an abetment to suicide case. Goswami was charged under Sections 353, 504, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code in the FIR. These sections deal with charges such as assault of a public servant, breaking public peace and criminal intimidation.

The Supreme Court had on Wednesday granted bail to Goswami and two others in the 2018 abetment to suicide case. The accused were released on a bond of Rs 50,000 each. He was released on the same day in the evening from Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison.

“The High Court made a gross mistake,” the Supreme Court had said. “The question whether enquiry could have started is up for consideration. If there are serious questions to be tried, why no interim relief? If the High Court felt there were serious questions for consideration, why no interim release was granted to him?”

Goswami and two other people – Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda – had challenged the Bombay High Court’s order rejecting their interim bail plea in the Supreme Court. Shaikh and Sarda’s plea for interim release were also accepted.

The accused 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.

In 2019, the Maharashtra Police had closed the suicide case. However, on November 4, Goswami was arrested and remanded to 14-judicial custody, with the police stating that they were now investigating the matter again.