Hours after getting arrested, Republic TV Founder and Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami has been sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the Alibaug court to probe the case of abetment of suicide that was booked against him with connection to the death of 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik in 2018. 

Goswami was arrested by Raigad district police with the help of Mumbai police on Wednesday morning at his residence. The case was related to the death of Anvay Naik, who committed suicide along with his mother, in May 2018. Anvay Naik (53) was the interior designer and he was one of the architects who worked with Republic TV in building in their studios in Mumbai when the channel was newly established by Arnab Goswami in the financial capital. 

In 2018, Naik had committed suicide and left a shocking reason in his suicide note. In his note, he wrote that he and his mother decided to take the extreme step as their dues of Rs 5.4 crores were not cleared by three companies including Arnab's ARG Outlier. Anvay Naik was the managing director of the interior designing company Concorde Designs and it was alleged that Arnab Goswami had failed to pay the designer Rs 83 lakhs. 

In May 2018, Anvay's wife Akshata had approached the police station and filed a complaint against Goswami and two others who were named in the suicide note. However, the complaint hadn't attained any development and it was closed one year later. Republic TV had denied Naik's allegations and said that some groups were running a false and malicious campaign against the channel. The English news channel had also claimed that it had cleared all due amounts.

Earlier this May, two years after the case was closed, Anvay's daughter Adnya had approached Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and she petitioned the Home Minister to re-open the case. Based on her plea, the Home Minister had directed to reopen the probe and handed over the probe to the Criminal Investigation Department. As the probe was re-opened, the Raigad police had now arrested Arnab Goswami with the help of Mumbai police on Wednesday in connection to the suicide case. 

Following the arrest, Arnab was taken to Alibaug and he was produced a court and the Alibaug police had sought the directive from the court for 14-day judicial custody following which Arnab was sent to 14-day custody on Wednesday night. According to Arnab's lawyer Gaurav Parkar, the journalist had filed for bail and the court has directed the investigation officer to file a reply to his bail petition. The reports say that the FIR has been registered against Arnab under sections 306 - abetment of suicide and 34 - acts done by persons in furtherance of common intention. 

Following the first FIR, the police had filed a fresh FIR against Arnab for allegedly manhandling a woman police officer, who was one among the police officers stormed to his residence. Along with Arnab, the FIR has also been filed against his wife Samyabrata Ray and their son under section 353 of IPC for obstructing police officers. 

After getting arrested, Arnab had accused the police officers of beating and assaulting him. Arnab Goswami's lawyer said, "His arrest was not informed to his wife. He was assaulted by 2 police officers. His family members were pushed & the house was cordoned off for 3 hours. There are abrasions on his left hand & an existing injury on his hand was tried to be torn apart by police"

 

FIR registered against Republic TV Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami for allegedly assaulting a lady police officer when police team reached his residence in Mumbai this morning.

— ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2020