Arnab Goswami had been arrested by the Raigad police on Wednesday, November 4th. The Republic Media Network editor-in-chief has been tied to abatement to suicide case. He was arrested from his home. In 2018 an interior designer and his mother had died by suicide over alleged non-payment of dues by Republic TV. It has been reported that over a dozen police officers arrived at Goswami’s home on Wednesday to arrest him. Republic Media Network also claimed that the cops physically assaulted Arnab, his son and Senior Executive Editor Samyabrata Ray Goswami (Arnab’s wife).
Zee Media has reported that CIU Inspector Sachin Vaje has told them that Arnab Goswami has been arrested under Section 306 and Section 34 of IPC. Goswami has also claimed that the police barracked and assaulted him during the arrest. Mumbai Police has claimed that there were repeated requests made by them asking Arnab Goswami to cooperate. They were supposedly let inside his house after waiting for one hour.
In 2018, interior designer Anvay Naik aged 53, and his mother were found dead in their home. The incident occurred on May 5th, 2018. A suicide note that was found blamed Arnab Goswami and two others for their suicide. The accused had defaulted on a payment of 5.40 crores. The interior designer’s wife had filed a complaint against the accused with Alibag police. Feroz Shah and Nitish Sarda are the other two people who had been accused. However, the case was closed on April 26th, 2019 due to lack of evidence.
The deceased’s wife, Akshata had posted a plea for justice which led Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh to re-open the case. Consequently, on October 16th, 2020 the local court allowed a reinvestigation into the case. Moreover, Arnab Goswami had moved the Mumbai high court to stop the reinvestigation just two days before he was arrested. The magistrate has set November 6th to hear his plea.
The BJP government and Union Ministers have come out in support for Arnab Goswami. They have called his arrest “an attack on the freedom of press.” Additionally, the Shiv Sena editorial named Saamana has accused the party of trying to cover up the abetment to suicide case. The Mumbai police had also arrested senior Republic TV employees over an alleged TRP scam case a few days ago. Arnab Goswami is to be kept in judicial custody till November 18th.
