Arnab Goswami, the editor-in-chief of Republic TV, on Thursday filed an urgent plea before the Bombay High Court, seeking a stay in the filing of chargesheet and subsequent proceedings in the 2018 Anvay Naik abetment to suicide case.

“Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who ordered re-investigation by the state CID, had no power to do so as the previous probe by the Alibaug police in Raigad district had been closed last year,” the application said.

Arnab was arrested by the Alibaug police last month, for his connection with the case, before the Supreme Court granted him bail.

Goswami in his plea stated that his arrest was illegal and sought to transfer the investigation to the CBI or some other independent institution.

The Maharashtra government in May this year ordered a reinvestigation out of vendetta, the petition alleged.

"The Home Department...or any other government authority does not have the power to order a reinvestigation or fresh investigation in a case where an `A summary' report (closure report) is filed and the same is accepted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate," it said.

Last month, Deshmukh had announced in a press conference that a “strong chargesheet” will be filed in the case, which showed that the state machinery was getting involved in the issue with a “malafide premeditated diktat to the law and order officers,” it said.

The re-investigation could not have been ordered without a judicial sanction and hence, the CID probe is illegal and "abuse of the process of law", Goswami said.

The announcement of reinvestigation reeked of the “malice, spiteful nature and vendetta of the political dispensation” in Maharashtra, the petition claimed.

Goswami also sought permission to amend his main petition seeking quashing of the FIR. He wanted to add arguments against the state home department's letter of May 26 which announced re-investigation and about which he learnt only last month, he said.