Journalist Arnab Goswami arrested for ‘abetting suicide of 53-year-old interior designer’: Police

Journalist Arnab Goswami arrested for ‘abetting suicide of 53-year-old interior designer’: Police

Journalist Arnab Goswami arrested for ‘abetting suicide of 53-year-old interior designer’: Police

Mumbai : The Mumbai Police on Wednesday arrested Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for allegedly abetting suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, a police official said.

 

The official said a team of Alibaug police picked up Goswami from his residence here. Goswami, who was seen being pushed into the police van, claimed he was assaulted by police at his home, while being taken away.

In 2018, an architect and his mother committed suicide over alleged non-payment of dues by Goswami's Republic TV, the official said.

In May this year, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had announced that a re-investigation has been ordered on a fresh complaint by Adnya Naik, daughter of the architect Anvay Naik.

Deshmukh had said Adnya alleged that the Alibaug police had not investigated the alleged non-payment of dues from Goswami's channel, which she claimed drove her father and grandmother to suicide in May 2018.

BJP slams arrest 

Terming the arrest of journalist Arnab Goswami as a "blatant misuse of state power", Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the "attack on free press must be and will be opposed".

 

"It reminds us of the Emergency. This attack on free press must be and WILL BE OPPOSED," he said.

 The home minister also slammed the opposition parties, saying Congress and its allies have "shamed democracy" and that the incident "reminds us of Emergency".

Journalist Arnab Goswami arrested for ‘abetting suicide of 53-year-old interior designer’: Police

Journalist Arnab Goswami arrested for ‘abetting suicide of 53-year-old interior designer’: Police

Reacting to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami's arrest, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday described it as "an attack on press freedom" in Maharashtra and said it reminded of the "Emergency days". 

Union minister Smriti Irani condemned the arrest saying if those in free press don't stand up in support of him then they are tactically in support of fascism.

Apart from them, law minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad  described the arrest of Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami as "seriously reprehensible, unwarranted and worrisome."

 

He also questioned the silence of the Congress leadership when its government in Maharashtra was "blatantly suppressing freedom of press." Police on Wednesday arrested Goswami in Mumbai for allegedly abetting suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, a police official said.

"The arrest of senior journalist Arnab Goswami is seriously reprehensible, unwarranted and worrisome. We had fought for freedoms of Press as well while opposing the Draconian Emergency of 1975," Prasad said in a series of tweets.

PTI