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Agencies

Court Sends Arnab Goswami to 14 Days' Jail, Rejects His Assault Charge
05-November-2020

Mumbai: Republic TV promoter Arnab Goswami was sent by a court in Maharashtra yesterday to 14 days of judicial custody. Mr Goswami was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday from his home in Mumbai in connection with the suicide of an architect, Anvay Naik, and his mother in 2018. The case was closed under the previous government but was reopened recently after appeals from the architect's family.
A court in Alibaug rejected the police's demand for 14-day custody but also dismissed Mr Goswami's charge that he had been physically assaulted while being arrested, an allegation he made several times in the day.

A 13-minute video shot during the arrest shows policemen pleading with the editor to cooperate as he says he has been assaulted. Eventually the policemen drag him away.

The Bombay High Court will today hear Mr Goswami's petition to strike off the case against him. He is also expected to file for bail, a move the police and Mr Naik's family will oppose. Mr. Goswami was taken to jail last night after an unusually long hearing of nearly six hours that went on almost till midnight.

Mr Naik's family will also file a petition in the Bombay High Court for its intervention.

Mr Goswami's lawyers described the refusal of police custody as a win. In a statement, Republic TV said, "Arnab Goswami's arrest has been made part of a larger vindictive exercise against an independent journalist & news network. This is to bring to light real facts on unfounded allegations in a closed case based on which Arnab Goswami was assaulted and arrested."

Earlier in the day, almost the entire union cabinet came out in support of Mr. Goswami alleging that his arrest was a reminder of the Emergency and that it was an assault on press freedom. Both the Editors Guild of India and News Broadcasters Association came out against the arrest but the Mumbai based TVJA (Television Journalists Association) said that the case was a personal matter and had nothing to do with journalism.