Outpouring of shock at the way Mumbai Police arrests Arnab Goswami

Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief, Republic TV, was arrested by the Mumbai Police this morning from his residence. Videos show about a dozen policemen inside Goswami’s house and there was some pulling and pushing by the police.

According to media reports, Goswami has been taken into custody in an abetment to suicide case against him in 2018. Anvay Naik, an interior designer and managing director of Concorde Designs, and his mother Kumud Naik, who was also in the Board of Directors of the company, died by suicide in Alibaug in May 2018. Anvay Naik purportedly left a suicide note in which he had named Goswami and two others for not clearing his dues amounting to Rs 5.40 crore for work done for Republic TV, which had led to a lot of financial constraints for him and his company.

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While the Aligaug Police had file a case of abetment to suicide in 2018, the case was closed in 2019 by the Raigad Police.

The case was re-opened in May 2020, when Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh tweeted that Anvay Naik’s daughter had “complained” to him that Alibaug had not investigated the case. Following this, Deshmukh ordered a fresh investigation into the case by the CID.

At the moment it is not known what the charges are that have been brought up against Goswami.

Just yesterday, Goswami had, via a press release, hit out at Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who, he said, had “called me the biggest hawala operator in the city of Mumbai”. He went on to add, “If I am indeed one of Mumbai’s biggest hawala operators, and if I am, as Param Bir Singh claims, a hawala kingpin, he should place me under arrest immediately.”

Goswami further said that this “witch-hunt” will end soon because more and more people have seen through Singh’s tactics. There has been an outpouring of outrage against the way Mumbai policemen manhandled Goswami. Several leading politicians have also come out in support. Ravi Shankar Prasad has slammed ‘reprehensible’ arrest of Arnab Goswami, slams Congress’ silence. Himanta Biswa Sarma, slamming the arrest, tweeted, “Emergency days are back”. Bihar’s Deputy CM Sushil Modi, too, said, “Emergency mindset of Congress still there”. BJP’s Ram Kadam condemned Goswami’s arrest and said, “stop treating him like a terrorist”. BJP’s Ram Madhav pointed at vendetta behind Goswami’s arrest and condemned the police action. BJP’s Smriti Irani, too, condemned the arrest and urged free press to stand up against fascism. “Who gave Param Bir power?”, asked BJP’s Manish Shukla.