Mumbai police press charges against Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami related to the death of an interior designer and his mother in 2018.
Indian police said they arrested a television news anchor and charged him with complicity in suicide in connection with the 2018 deaths of an interior designer and the designer’s mother.
Mumbai police officer Sanjay Mohite said Wednesday that the charges against Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami are related to the death of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother, which police determined was suicide.
A suicide note found by the police and said to have been written by Naik said that he took his own life because Goswami and two other people owed him a large sum of money and refused to pay it back.
Goswami has denied the allegations.
Goswami is known for aggressively backing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalistic policies during his nightly shows, often yelling at his opponents. Critics have accused Republic TV of pandering to Modi’s agenda at a time when other media channels say press freedom is threatened.
Republic TV in a statement called Goswami’s arrest a “black day for democracy in India” and alleged that the police physically assaulted him. His channel showed a video of Goswami being forced into a police van by officers outside his residence in Mumbai.
Several senior leaders of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rushed to condemn Goswami’s arrest.
“The blatant abuse of state power against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the fourth pillar of democracy,” tweeted India’s powerful Interior Minister Amit Shah. “This attack on the free press must and WILL BE OPPOSED.”
Railways Minister Piyush Goyal called his arrest a “fascist movement” and “an undeclared emergency signal.”
Last month, Mumbai police also accused Republic TV of tampering with the rating system, a major factor in how much a channel can charge advertisers. [File: Peter Hutchison/AFP]
“We must all stand up to this attack on India’s democracy,” Goyal tweeted.
Another high-ranking ruling party minister, Smriti Irani, tweeted: “He may not like it, he may not approve of it, he may despise his own existence, but if he remains silent he supports the repression.”
The Publishers Guild of India, which represents the country’s newspapers, condemned Goswami’s arrest. In a statement, he called on the authorities to “ensure that Goswami is treated fairly and that state power is not used against critical media reports.”
Goswami is not new to controversy.
He has been accused in two other cases of inciting communal tensions and promoting hatred between religious groups. He has denied these charges.
In October, Mumbai police also accused Republic TV of tampering with the rating system, a major factor in what a channel can charge advertisers. Goswami and his channel have denied the allegations.
In recent months, he has carried out wall-to-wall coverage against the Mumbai police and accused them of mishandling an investigation into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, a popular actor.
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