Mr. Goswami, 47, is no stranger to controversy. Earlier this year, Mumbai police launched an investigation on its channel, Republic TV, alleging that anti-Muslim hatred was linked to a nearby protest by migrant workers targeting a mosque outside a railway station.
Last month, police officials in Mumbai accused Republic TV and two smaller channels of tampering with the rating system to keep poor people tuned to the station and turn on their televisions by paying a few dollars a month. Mr. Goswami, co-founder of the channel, vehemently denied the allegations of bribery, saying that he was targeted because of the coverage criticism of the Mumbai police.
The last case against him is related to the suicide of interior designer, Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018. According to Mr. Naik’s family members, he named the journalist in his suicide note, accusing Mr. Goswami and two others of not giving him money. The money that was owed to them.
On Wednesday morning, officers raided Mr Goswami’s house in an upper class area of south Mumbai, where, according to police, he and his wife took about an hour to open the door.
In the video of the raid, Mr. Goswami yells at the officers and tells them not to bother him, as other officers repeatedly request that Mr. Goswami’s wife, who also works at the TV station, put down her cellphone, which she says That she is recording. The phenomenon “alive.”
“You have physically assaulted me,” says Mr Goswami. An officer frequently requests that they cooperate. When he refuses to get out of bed, another officer steps forward and says, “It’s over. You have been arrested. ”
According to the protagonist’s widow Akshata Naik, her husband worked hard on a design project for Republic TV, but after not being paid for the work for a year, he left her penless and was forced to commit suicide.
