Guwahati News Desk: Alibaug Police arrested Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on Wednesday for allegedly abetting suicide of an interior designer in 2018.
Goswami was arrested in the abetment of suicide case in 2018. The architect and his mother committed suicide over alleged non-payment of dues by Republic TV.
In a suicide note, the owner of Concorde Designs Pvt Ltd, Anvay Naik, had claimed that he was ending his life due to non-payment of his dues by Goswami, Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks said the police. As per the note, the three firms owed Naiks company Rs 83 lakh, Rs four crore and Rs 55 lakh respectively.
According to the sources, the Alibaug police picked up Goswami from his Lower Parel house in the morning. Goswami claimed that he was assaulted by police at his home, before being taken away; he was also seen being pushed into the police van.
Meanwhile, reacting to the arrest netizens in Twitter slammed police for manhandling and demanded justice for Arnab.
Information and Broadcasting Minister 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,” he said.
Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal on the other hand said that it’s a black day for Indian Democracy. “ I strongly condemn the assault on senior journalist #ArnabGoswami by Mumbai police. Vendetta politics should be stopped and freedom of press should be maintained in Maharashtra by releasing Mr Goswami immediately.”
Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma twitted, “Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami physically assaulted & arrested by Mumbai police is nothing but muzzling freedom of press by the vindictive M’rashtra govt. Strongly condemn this shameless politically motivated Mumbai police action. It’s like Emergency days in Maharashtra.”