A magistrate court on Wednesday granted bail to Vikas Khanchandani, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd, - the company that runs Republic TV and its Hindi counterpart Republic Bharat, after his arrest three days ago.
Advocate Niranjan Mundargi appearing for the 44-year-old executive told the court that the malice of the Mumbai police is evident from the fact that Khanchandani was taken from his home by the police along with his laptop without informing his family if he is being taken away for questioning or being arrested.
Khanchandani’s bail plea stated that the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission had taken note of the manner in which Khanchandani had been arrested and issued a notice to the DCP, Crime Branch seeking a detailed report on the matter.
The executive had been arrested by the Mumbai Police on Sunday, a day before his anticipatory bail plea was scheduled to be heard before a sessions court.
Along with the pre-arrest bail pleas of Khanchandani, the court was also to hear on Monday, a similar plea of his colleague and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) S Sundaram.
The court, which started hearing the latter's plea, was informed that Khanchandani had been arrested on Sunday while his plea was to come up for hearing on Monday. The court then sought a submission from the prosecution that pending hearing of Sundaram's plea, coercive action would not be taken on him.
Accordingly, the prosecution made a submission that no coercive action will be taken till Tuesday when the plea will be heard. On Tuesday, advocate Mundargi made his arguments for Sundaram. The prosecution which sought adjournment till December 21, then made a submission that no coercive action will be taken till December 21 against Sundaram.
