The Karnataka High Court, on Wednesday, granted transit bail to Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Republic TV, Priya Mukharjee in the fake TRP scam case registered by Mumbai Police.

The bail was granted for a period of 20 days within which period Mukharjee should approach the concerned jurisdictional court for further relief, the court clarified.

The order was pronounced by Justice HP Sandesh who had reserved the case for verdict on Tuesday.

In the event of arrest of the petitioner, she may be enlarged by depositing a bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties.

The Bench placed reliance on a plethora of Supreme Court as well as High Court decisions to conclude that it can consider an application made under section 438 seeking transit bail.

After going through the factual matrix, the Court noted that there is no dispute about the fact that in the complaint registered by Mumbai Police in the TRP case, there is no mention of the Mukharjee as well as the ARG Company.

The Court additionally noted that the petitioner had approached Mumbai police on November 17 -18 and her statements were taken from 11:30 am to 5:30 pm.

The Bench also took into account two letters dated November 19 and 20 furnished by the petitioner to Mumbai police, informing that she would be travelling to Bangalore as her father was not keeping well and that she would return by November 24 to co-operate with the investigation.

When asked what made the police rush to Bengaluru, the Mumbai police had no answer, observed the Court, in its order. The Court further highlighted that the Police had not explained as to why she was called to Bannerghatta Police Station, during her short stay in Karnataka.

"There is no "answer in the mouth of the police" for these questions", the Court noted.

The Court also found no substance in the contention raised by the Mumbai Police Court that a similar writ petition had been filed before Bombay High Court.

In this regard, the Court pointed out that Mukharjee was not a party to that petition which was filed by Arnab Goswami.

With this, the Court opined that the Petitioner had made out a strong ground to avail transit bail for a limited period and, thereby, the allowed her plea.

Mukharjee's counsel had, on Monday, contended that she was ready to co-operate with the ongoing investigation in the matter and, therefore, pre-arrest transit bail should be granted to her.

In her anticipatory bail application, Mukharjee had claimed that she and other employees of ARG Outlier (Holding company of Republic TV) were falsely implicated in the matter based on the press statements given by the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai.

It was further submitted in the plea that the Mumbai police has ill-will against the Republic TV and Arnab Goswami as the latter had questioned the tardy investigation of the Mumbai Police in the suicide case of Sushant Singh Rajput and Palghar lynching case.

It was Mukharjee's case that if her arrest is permitted, then it would have a chilling effect on the Article 19 (1) (a) as well as Article 21 of the Constitution, the plea added.

Senior Advocate Devadutt Kamat appearing for Maharashtra had submitted that the anticipatory bail plea was not maintainable. It was his argument that the present section 438 application was a "cut and paste" of the writ petition filed before Bombay High Court.

As no relief was granted by the Bombay High Court, the petitioner approached the Karnataka High Court, claimed Kamat.

Unscrupulous litigants, Kamat had argued, should not be given the opportunity to entertain the idea of "forum shopping". If this is allowed, then the same would bring anarchy, he added.

When questioned on the reasons for urgent interrogation in the matter, Kamat apprised the Bench that Mukharjee had stated that she has the habit of "deleting chats" on mobile.

"Mukharjee should be questioned immediately because when she was asked whether she has any chats with Arnab Goswami, she said 'I chat with all employees but I am in a habit of deleting chats'", Kamat said.

Kamat had also raised concerns of evidence being tampered with and an intention on the part of the petitioner to delay the investigation in the matter.

Mukherjee had, however, maintained that the allegations mentioned in the FIR of the TRP Scam case does not merit custodial interrogation.

[Read order here]