Republic TV on Tuesday accused the Maharashtra government of subjecting it to a “witch hunt” after Mumbai police notified its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami of a notice of proven cause for its coverage of the Palghar lynching case and the protest. of migrants from Bandra in April. The notice, sent to Goswami on Saturday, asked why he should not be forced to sign a bond of good conduct, he reported. The Indian Express.
The matter is related to the first two informational reports registered earlier this year against the journalist. Goswami was accused of displaying content on his channel that may instigate enmity between different communities, police said.
In a statement Tuesday, the news channel called the notification illegal as the Supreme Court and the High Court of Bombay had suspended the action against Goswami.
“The notice of apparent cause issued to Arnab Goswami reeks of an openly spiteful and deeply motivated witch hunt by the Maharashtra state government against a free press that holds the political administration accountable,” the news channel said in a statement. “The Mumbai Police agenda is very clear given the fact that their notice of show of cause constitutes a complete violation of court orders.”
The television station accused the police and the state government of pursuing a “malicious agenda” against journalists. The organization said it will take legal action.
Mumbai Police had sent a notice to Goswami under section 108 of the Criminal Procedure Code on October 10, according to the Hindustan Times. The police asked Goswami why legal proceedings should not be initiated against him.
Police Deputy Commissioner (Worli Division) Sudhir Jambavdekar asked Goswami to appear before him on Friday.
READ | Republic press release after vicious notice of demonstrative cause by Mumbai police to Arnab on the Palghar, Bandra cases. pic.twitter.com/wxakqbj2ka
– Republic (@republica) October 13, 2020
In June, the Bombay High Court granted interim measures of arrest to Goswami and suspended two first information reports filed against him for alleged community coverage of the Palghar lynching case and the gathering of migrant workers outside Bandra station. A bank in the Ujjal Bhuyan and Riyaz Chagla division had said that “prima facie no case was brought” against Goswami.
In April, the Supreme Court had also ordered that no coercive action be taken against him for three weeks.
Fir trees
Complaints were filed against the founder of Republic TV after he accused the president of Congress, Sonia Gandhi, of orchestrating the lynching of Palghar in Maharashtra. Three Mumbai residents, who were on their way to Silvassa on April 16, were lynched by local residents in Gadakchinchale village of Palghar district on suspicion that they were thieves. Two of the men were sadhus.
The Republic TV host had questioned Gandhi’s silence on the incident and made several accusations. “Would Sonia Gandhi have kept quiet if Muslim preachers or Christian saints had been killed instead of Hindu saints?” Goswami had asked on his show.
Meanwhile, the second FIR came after Irfan Abubakar Shaikh, secretary of the Raza Educational Welfare Society, referred to a report broadcast by the channel on April 29. Large numbers of people had flocked to Bandra station hoping to return home during the national lockdown, which was imposed in the last week of March to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The author said that Goswami made multiple communal and incendiary statements on the air about the meeting.
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