India’s most controversial news anchor Arnab Goswami has been arrested in connection to a two-year-old case of abetment to suicide.
Mr Goswami was arrested by Mumbai police Wednesday morning for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 53-year old interior designer Anvay Naik.
Police officials said a suicide note found and determined to have been written by Naik allegedly named Goswami, saying the anchor and two others owed him a large sum of money and had refused to pay it back.
Mr Goswami has denied the allegations and his channel issued a statement calling his arrest a “black day for India’s democracy”.
He also said he was assaulted by police and sustained injuries on his hand and back as he was forced into a police van outside his residence.
The magistrate instructed police to take him to a civil hospital for medical check up and produce him again for court hearing on his remand.
Some prominent journalists in India have condemned the arrest saying it is unwarranted, worrisome and an attack on individual freedom.
India’s Union Minister for Information and Broadcast Prakash Javadekar also condemned the arrest saying “We condemn the attack on press freedom in #Maharashtra. This is not the way to treat the Press. This reminds us of the emergency days when the press was treated like this.”
Arnab Goswami is facing two FIRs, registered at Pydhonie and NM Joshi Marg police stations, for allegedly inciting communal tension. A case relating to alleged fudging of TRPs is being probed by the Mumbai Crime Branch while chapter proceedings against Goswami have been initiated separately by police.
