Several Ministers condemn arrest of Arnab Goswami as a reminder of the Emergency

https://twitter.com/AmitShah/status/1323863582027603970?s=20 https://twitter.com/PrakashJavdekar/status/1323831187693924353?s=20

Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was arrested today in a two-year-old suicide case in which investigations were reopened recently, the Mumbai police said. Several Union Ministers are among those who have condemned the arrest as a reminder of the Emergency.

“Congress and its allies have shamed democracy once again. Blatant misuse of state power against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the 4th pillar of democracy. It reminds us of the Emergency. This attack on free press must be and WILL BE OPPOSED,” tweeted Home Minister Amit Shah as reports emerged of Arnab Goswami’s arrest.

“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,” posted Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Mr Goswami claimed he was manhandled and assaulted by the police at his Mumbai home before being pushed into their van.

News agency ANI quoted him as saying that Mumbai Police “physically assaulted his mother-in-law and father-in-law, son and wife”. In videos aired by Republic TV, policemen were seen holding him as they were attempting to take him away.

The Republic Editor-in-Chief has been arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, Anvay Naik, and his mother, in 2018.

The designer had reportedly named Arnab Goswami in a suicide note and had accused Republic TV of not paying him his dues.

In May, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had announced that the suicide was being reinvestigated after a fresh complaint by Adnya Naik, the designer’s daughter. Mr Deshmukh had claimed that Adnya believed the Alibaug police had not investigated Republic’s properly for non-payment of dues, which, she claimed, drove her father and grandmother to suicide in May 2018.

The arrest comes in the middle of Mr Goswami’s row with the Mumbai Police over its investigations into a ratings scam and allegations that Republic TV is among three channels involved in manipulating TRPs or Television Rating Points by bribing households metred for viewership. The editor had accused the police of harassing his colleagues and pursuing a vendetta over his channel’s criticism of Mumbai Police’s handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case.