NEW DELHI: Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami is a man caught in the eye of a storm. Weeks after finding himself in the midst of a TRP manipulation racket, the journalist was arrested in connection to a 2018 abetment to suicide case. In the last few days, the visuals of Goswami being dragged and shoved ignominiously while being taken into police custody have been shared widely on social media and the TV news circuit. Now, he has levelled the charge of mistreatment against the Mumbai police in his bail plea before the Bombay high court.
Goswami has claimed that not only did he sustain injuries as a result of police action during his arrest, he was denied drinking water and made to ingest a “certain liquid” while he was in police custody.
"During the course of his arrest and while being transferred to Alibaug in a police van and in the custody of the police, the petitioner suffered a 6-inch-deep gash on his left hand, a serious injury to his spinal cord, was hit by a heavy uniform police officer’s boot, was not allowed to wear shoes throughout, suffered vein injuries and was not even given access to drinking water. Additionally, the Petitioner was also forced to consume certain liquid by the police officers guarding him and choked as a result thereof," the petition reads, as reported by Bar and Bench.
He has also accused the police of deliberately delaying in filing a reply to the court's notice on his bail plea, in order to ensure that he "remains illegally detained." Yesterday, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Goswami, had asserted that the Maharashtra government was acting in malice against his client.
In a special hearing today, the bench of justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik has taken up Goswami's habeas corpus petition challenging his arrest and detention. Submissions are currently underway from senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for the state. Earlier in the day, the court heard submissions from counsels for the two other accused in the case and advocate Subodh Desai, representing the complainant Adnya Naik, the deceased’s daughter.
The bench told the lawyers that they need to wrap up arguments on the matter of interim relief today itself, otherwise the case would be next posted for hearing on November 23, after vacations.
After being closed in 2019, the abetment case was reopened in October this year. It pertains to the suicide of Mumbai-based interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother. Naik alleged in his suicide note that Goswami and two others had not paid dues owed to his firm, which is why he decided to end his life. Goswami was arrested by Alibaug police and was remanded to judicial custody till 18 November by a magistrate’s court.
