November 5, 2020 5:17:40 am
Akshata and Adnya Naik, wife and daughter of the late Anvay Naik, address the media in Mumbai on Wednesday. PTI
For the daughter and wife of Anvay Naik, who died by suicide in May 2018 in her Alibaug bungalow along with her mother, the arrest of three people whom she had named in the suicide note, including the editor-in-chief of Republic TV , Arnab Goswami, “It is the first step in the battle for justice” that has been underway for two years.
Adnya Naik, Anvay’s daughter, told The Indian Express on Wednesday: “Goswami has been doing shows about the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput and aggressively seeking arrests even though he did not leave any suicide note. In the case of my father and my grandmother, they left a suicide note with the specific name of Goswami and two other people, but no action was taken against them for almost two years. “
While Anvay was the managing director of the Mumbai-based architecture and interior design firm Concorde Designs, his mother Kumud, who was also found dead in the bungalow along with him, was on the firm’s board of directors.
In a suicide note left by Anvay, he had said that he and his mother were taking an extreme step due to payments owed to them by three people: Republic TV’s Goswami, IcastX / Skimedia’s Feroz Shaikh, and Smartworks’ Niteish Sarda. All three were arrested Wednesday.
Adnya and her mother Akshata said they have done everything from starting a YouTube channel, writing to the Prime Minister’s Office to reaching out to Goswami himself for justice.
“Since the day of the suicide, we have been pressured not to host an FIR. Then the police told us that there were powerful people involved and that we should not register an FIR. However, when we insisted, an FIR was registered, ”Adnya said.
Adnya, also an interior designer, alleged that she and her mother met with investigating officer Suresh Varade around January last year at the Alibaug traffic police station. “He spoke kindly to us and asked us to sign a statement saying that we wanted to withdraw the complaint. We were shocked. When we tried to take a picture of the statement, he pushed us and tore it, ”he said.
“We spoke with Raigad SP Anil Paraskar about it the next day, but he did nothing. Whenever we met him, he kept saying the investigation was ongoing. “
The IG (Konkan Range) has ordered a departmental investigation against Varade, currently stationed as a chief inspector at the Virar police station, for “deliberately omitting facts” during the investigation. When contacted, Varde said: “I don’t want to comment. I will face the investigation. “
While Paraskar also declined to comment, an official said the family had complained to the SP about the incident. “Varade then said that he was only notifying the family that a closure report was being filed,” said a senior officer.
Adnya claimed that the worst thing was that they did not even know that the Raigad police had filed a case closure report due to lack of evidence. “It was only in a statement issued by Republic TV this year that we learned that the case had been closed. We then asked our attorneys to obtain the necessary documentation. Before, it had taken us eight months to get the suicide note. “
He added that they also faced threats, especially after his mother started posting videos online. “We had filed four unrecognizable complaints: two with the Dadar police and the Murbad police. After uploading videos to social media, we received threatening phone calls … In Murbad, a person on a bicycle told me that he knew where we were staying, ”Adnya said.
Following the four complaints, the police had sent a notice to Goswami to sign a bond of good conduct. On allegations that Goswami was arrested due to political revenge, Akshata said: “This is justice for a family that had been fighting powerful people like Goswami. Only people who do not know our struggle can make such statements. ” “What has happened to us has not happened to the families of politicians who allege political revenge,” Adnya added.
“We don’t want this to be political. It is about a family that seeks justice for two of its members. Even now, when we see the emails written by my father to Arnab asking him to return the Rs 83 lakh dues, we start to cry. I had sent him a couple of times the month before his suicide and called it ‘a matter of life and death’ in the mail, but there was no response, “said Adnya.
Republic TV said it has already paid nearly 90 percent of the fees. He added: “Despite multiple emails and messages to Ms. Akshata Naik and Ms. Adnya Naik regarding the willingness to secure a full and final agreement, no concrete response has been received. Ms. Akshata Naik has required in the past that all payments due to Concorde be made to outside providers, but ARG is contractually obligated to make all payments to CDPL and not third parties.
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