New Delhi: Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami was arrested by the Maharashtra Police Wednesday morning after it reopened a 2018 case in which he was alleged to have abetted the suicide of 53-year-old architect Anvay Naik, and his mother Kumud.
The allegation had led to an FIR being registered against the anchor and two others in Alibaug, a city in Raigad district near Mumbai, where the incident took place. The case was closed by Raigad police in April 2019, apparently due to lack of evidence.
The case came back into the spotlight in May this year when the Maharashtra Congress posted a video of Anvay Naik’s widow Akshata reiterating the allegation that Goswami abetted the suicides. Republic TV then said in a statement that the case was “closed by a court of law”.
Also read: Maharashtra Police action against Arnab Goswami is uncivil, vindictive and self-defeating
The allegations
In his suicide note, Anvay Naik had claimed that Goswami and the two others — Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, a media services firm, and Niteesh Sarda of Smartwork, which provides “flexible workspaces” — owed him a total of Rs 5.4 crore.
The FIR registered by the Alibaug police said Goswami owed Rs 83 lakh to the architect, who owned a firm called Concorde Designs Pvt Ltd.
In the video shared by Maharashtra Congress, Akshata Naik said the matter was “serious and needs further investigation”.
However, Republic TV had said in a subsequent statement that the allegations and videos on social media were “unfounded”, adding that the case against ARG Outlier Media Pvt Limited, Republic’s parent company, was closed by a court after the police filed a closure report.
Threatening legal action under civil and criminal law, Republic’s statement said ARG Outlier Media Pvt Limited had paid 90 per cent of all dues over two years ago. It said it had since made “repeated attempts” to make a final settlement, and had the full correspondence to prove its claim.
The dues, it added, were transferred to the bank account of Anvay’s company in July 2019, but returned because the account was “inoperative”.
It claimed Akshata had demanded that the dues should be paid to third-party vendors and not Concorde, but refused to cooperate for the settlement “despite emails and messages”.
Other cases against Arnab
Arnab Goswami and the Congress have been at loggerheads since early this year when he was booked for making inflammatory comments against party president Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress is a partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, which includes the Nationalist Congress Party.
Goswami had also alleged the Congress was involved in an attack on him in Mumbai.
In June, the Mumbai Police summoned Goswami for another round of interrogation when a complaint was filed against him in April for allegedly creating communal disturbance through his TV show over the gathering of migrant workers in Mumbai’s Bandra. The complainant had alleged that Goswami tried to spread hatred against Muslims.
The Supreme Court had, in May, quashed the multiple FIRs against Goswami, except for the one filed against him for a debate on the Palghar incident.
The Bombay High Court in June stayed two FIRs filed against Goswami, and said no coercive steps should be taken against him until further orders.
Republic TV and two other channels were also booked by the Mumbai Police last month for allegedly fudging TRPs to boost advertising revenues.
Subsequently, Mumbai Police booked senior editors and staff of the channel for airing news about a “revolt” within the force against Commissioner Param Bir Singh.
Also read: Editors Guild calls Arnab Goswami arrest ‘extremely distressing’, asks for fair treatment
Since Arnob has encouraged fake news (Christians killed Palghar Hindu holymen on orders of Vatican, Muslims are spreading Covid etc.), which has encouraged vigilante Hindu violence, Hindus should not object if Arnob is subjected to some vigilante justice.
He filed ₹200 crore defamation case against Paramveer Singh who deliberately called out Republic TV’s name rather than INDIA TODAY whose name was in TRP Case in BARC FIR. You Mr. Shekhar Gupta be mindful of that. I don’t don’t think you can afford such notice.
The suicide note of the late architect should go under forensic examination to ensure it is not forged. The suspicion is due the timing of the surfacing of the said suicide note.
Architect should be politely cross examined for the real details.
Arnab is a criminal. Due to this personal, the person done suicide. He is always using his wrong powers.
the print is anti national media which always encourages tensions, spreads fake news but never publish anything for national interests. Shame on your reporting.
I think all news channel and print media should work with transparency like ndtv and print.good article ??
Arnab’s episode clearly demonstrates that the Police can crawl when ordered to bend at the behest of their shameless , vindictive political masters. They can only uproot the Rule of Law, not uphold it.
Shame.
Congress NCP SS and the Pakistani supporters of the Bollywood cabal are hell bent on ruling India the way they want as feudal autocrats. They can do anything they want, everybody else is supposed to just lay back and say ….. i love you ,you are so great..
Salman Khan has said just 15 days back that Republic will be closed down.
Salman congress dawood and their pet scribes like yours truly the Print , the fighters for press freedom and humans … all silent and alleging misconduct and saying the case that the Court dismissed in 2018 for abetment is wrong.
Police forcefully ink Arnabs wifes hand and try to get her to sign on something….its on camera…and not a pip squeak from all your custodians of freedom.
That means that the entire Raigad Plice and the High Curt are corrupt.
So by logic if they were corrupt and influenced then in 2019…are they not the same now.. at the behest of Sonia Maino and Shared Pavement and the Slippery Slime.
THE BRITISH ARE HERE………NLY NOW THE NAME IS CHANGED …ITS AGHADI
Print is funded by Pakistan
BTW, who reads The Print
Print, how shameful, coward are you..you function by hypocrisy , deceit and manipulation..
BTW, who reads The Print
You read it and goes on to ask who reads it.
In the arrest video, Cowswami says ‘I am not used to physical assault’ .
Yeah right, Cowswami is used to only verbal assaults !
But why rest of the media is doing Hara-kiri?
It is very painful when free .media is gagged this way. The media which is considered the 4th pillar of healthy democracy, cannot be controlled or abuse in this way. Its dangerous for our country. Supreme Court, High Court of Mzharashtra and Home Minister of Indua must intervene and ensure immediate release of Mr. Arnab Goswami.
ThePrint is too coward to even stand with Arnab Goswami.
What perfect timing by The Print!!! Isn’t it amazing that this “well researched” article appears as the headline within hours of Mr. Goswami being assaulted, manhandled and arrested by the “encounter cops”.
The Print is so obviously part of the corrupt clique consisting of the administration running Maharashtra, corrupt top cops, drug & criminal mafia & a pliant media.
Well done boys! You’ve turned Maharashtra into Colombia within months.