India / Arnab Goswami sent to judicial custody for 14 days in 2018 suicide abetment case

Mumbai: Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami was arrested by Raigad police on Wednesday in connection with abetment to suicide case filed against him and two others in 2018. During hearing at a court in Alibaug, Goswami said he was assaulted by police and sustained injuries on his hand and back.

Later in the day, a Raigad court sent the three to judicial custody for 14 days. All three have moved bail pleas.

The magistrate instructed police to take him to a civil surgeon and produce him again following a second medical examination. Earlier in the day, visuals flashed on Republic TV showed Goswami being forced into a police van. Later, a fresh FIR was registered by Mumbai Police against Goswami, his wife, son and two others for allegedly assaulting a woman police official during his arrest.

In 2018, an architect and his mother died by suicide over alleged non-payment of dues by Goswami’s Republic TV, a police official said.

In a release, RepublicTV said “Arnab Goswami’s arrest in the related suicide case has been made as part of a larger vindictive exercise against an independent journalist and an independent news organisation.” The release said the “Anvay Naik suicide case was investigated and closed by a court of law after a closure report by the police noted that no case was made out in April 2019.”

“The very fact that the open physical assault on Arnab, his family and on team Republic was caught on tape and beamed across the world this morning in a closed case is proof of the desperation with which the Mumbai Police and Maharashtra Government is operating,” it added.

Home Minister Amit Shah said the incident is a reminder of the “emergency days.” Union Minister for Information and Broadcast Prakash Javadekar tweeted, “We condemn the attack on press freedom in #Maharashtra. This is not the way to treat the Press. This reminds us of the emergency days when the press was treated like this.” “Those in the free press who don’t stand up today in support of Arnab, you are now tactically in support of fascism,” Union Minister Smriti Irani tweeted. External Affairs Minister also said the incident has “shades of democracy.” Former Maharashtra Chief Minister tweeted, “Although emergency was defeated in 1977, the mentality is still alive Today, the supporters of emergency-Congress and Shivsena are displaying the same undemocratic brutality to crush any voice of dissent.”