If there is evidence, why Republic TV, Arnab not named as accused? Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court asked the Mumbai police on Wednesday that since the latter claimed to have adequate evidence against Republic TV and its Editorin Chief Arnab Goswami in the alleged TRP scam why had they not named them as accused in the caseA bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale directed Special Public Prosecutor SPP Shishir Hiray to inform the court by Thursday whether the police plan to proceed against Goswami and Republic TVIt also asked Hiray to tell the court how much time were the police likely to take to complete the investigation into the case You are investigating for the last three months There are two charge sheets and there seems to be no evidence against them And this FIR is of October 2020 We are in March 2021 the HC saidWhy keep the sword hanging on their head You are not making them an accused also why so it asked The bench was responding to submissions made by senior advocate Ashok Mundargi the counsel for Goswami and ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd the company that runs Republic TV channelsMundargi told the HC that the police had named Goswami and several employees of the ARG Outlier Media as suspects but had no evidence to charge them as accused in the case They police cannot keep investigating forever If they have some material against us they have to show us they cannot keep playing hot and cold Mundargi saidHowever SPP Hiray said the police have adequate evidence in the case and that they are still collecting additional evidence Then why not make them an accused We do not think there is anything such as suspect in criminal law the bench saidThe court said the contention of the petitioners Goswami and the ARG Outlier Media was that they were always under the fear that some action might be taken against them The HC will continue hearing the arguments on ThursdayThe ARG Outlier Media and Goswami approached the HC last year filing a bunch of petitions seeking several reliefs in the Television Rating Points TRP scamThey alleged that the whole case was malafide and they had been targeted for Republic TVs reportage in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and Palghar lynching case last yearThe Mumbai police in January this year filed two affidavits in the case through Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh and ACP Shashank Sandbhor of the crime branch saying they had not targeted the Republic TV or its employeesThe police had said their probe was not a result of any political vendetta and there was evidence to show that Goswami had connived with senior officials of the Broadcast Audience Research Council BARC to rig the TRP of Republic TVThe Republic TV has denied any wrongdoingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever