Arnab Goswami was arrested by the Mumbai police this morning in his apartment. The whole scene was captured in an eight minute video, later put on various social media platforms like YouTube by Republic TV which was co-founded by Arnab Goswami himself.
Arnab Goswami alleged in this same video that the police had assaulted him and members of his family including his son.
The police arrested Arnab in relation with a 2018 suicide abetment case.
What are the details of this case?
In 2018 Anvay Naik an interior designer and his mother Kumud Naik’s bodies were found dead at their bungalow. The police opinioned that Anvay strangled his mother Kumud and then committed suicide.
Later the police found a suicide note written by Anvay. This note contains information about how he and his mother were in extreme financial debt because he had lent money to Arnab and two other individuals who were not paying the money back.
The financial debt was seen as the major reason for Anvay to commit suicide; Arnab denied all charges and said that he had made the payment.
The case was closed in April 2019 by the Raigad police due to lack of evidence.
In May 2020 the case was reopened when Anvay’s daughter came to the current home minister accusing the police of doing a poor job the first time.
Theories behind Arnab Goswami’s arrest
Since the arrest there have been various allegations and theories formed regarding the reason and motive of Arnab’s arrest. There are various things that need to be considered about this arrest.
There was a change of government from April 2019 to May 2020, thus highlights the possibility of political role in the judgments.
When the case was reopened in May 2020 it was investigated by the Crime Inspection Department (CID) instead of the Mumbai police.
Another thing to note is that the CID unlike the Mumbai police directly reports to the State government. Thus there is a possibility for political influence clouding the police’s decision.
The fact that there were already a large number of FIRs filed against Arnab Goswami by the party in power increases the chances of this being a political move.
What is the suicide abetment law?
The Indian Penal code makes abetment of suicide a punishable offense.
Further Section 306 of the IPC prescribes either a jail term of maximum ten years or fine or both.
The IPC describes abetment as including instigating, engaging in conspiracy or assisting in committing the offence.
Arnab Goswami has been an extremely controversial journalist. Be it him getting trolled over all social media platforms as a blind supporter of the current ruling party, or be it the famous Instagram meme of him asking for narcotics.
Is Arnab being wrongfully accused because of his reputation and political opinion?
Or is Arnab a part to this crime?
More updates about the same coming up.
