New Delhi (ILNS): Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, who was arrested from his home this morning in connection with an abetment to suicide case was later produced before the an Alibaug court. Mumbai Police has sought a 14-day police remand for Goswami.
The case pertains to the suicide of the family of architect Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik. In a note before suicide, they had named Goswami and two others as reasons of their bankruptcy and death. The other two named have also been picked up. The case is two years old, and had been closed for lack of evidence and proof, but has now been reopened.
After Arnab Goswami alleged that he was manhandled and injured by the police and that they used force to arrest him from his Worli residence, the court sought his medical report from the Alibaug civil hospital.
Just after his arrest, several Union ministers came out in support of the journalist, condemning the Mumbai Police’s move and compared the current situation to the Emergency which was imposed in 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Apart from Goswami, two other accused, Niteish and Feroz Shaikh have been booked under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A suicide note purportedly written by late Anvay Naik states that the deceased lent money to Arnab and two others Feroz Shaikh and Nitish Sarda and they did not return him Rs 5.40 crore which led to his financial constraints.
Subsequently, in 2018 the Alibaug police filed a case of abetment to suicide. However, in 2019, the case was closed by the Raigad Police.
This comes in the backdrop of Goswami’s row with the Mumbai Police over its investigations into a fake TRP case where it was alleged that Republic TV is among the three channels involved in manipulating TRPs by bribing households for viewership.
-India Legal Bureau