Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday expressed concern over Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami’s security and health to state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh during a telephonic conversation, reported PTI. Goswami was arrested on November 4 in connection with a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
In a statement, the governor’s office said Koshyari has also asked the state home minister to allow Goswami’s family to see and speak to him. The governor had earlier also expressed concern to Deshmukh over the manner in which the journalist was arrested, the statement added.
This came a day after Goswami alleged that he was not allowed to speak to his lawyers and also claimed to have been pushed and assaulted. “I had requested them please let me talk [to my lawyers],” Goswami was heard saying in a video. “But they denied. I am telling everyone my life is at stake. My police custody was rejected. They tried to shift me at night only. Today morning they have dragged me. Everybody is seeing what is happening to me. They want to delay the process and keep me in jail. Please give me bail, I am appealing to the Supreme Court.”
The journalist was shifted from a quarantine centre in Alibag to Taloja Jail on Sunday. He was supposed to be moved to jail at the end of his quarantine period, but he was shifted earlier after allegedly being found using a mobile phone.
Goswami and two other people – Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda – are alleged to have failed to pay money they owed to an interior designer named Anvay Naik, managing director of Concorde Designs Private Limited. Naik and his mother were found dead in their home in Kavir village near Mumbai in 2018. A suicide note said that the Goswami, Shaikh and Sarda had not paid dues amounting to Rs 5.4 crore.
The Republic TV anchor was sent to 14-day judicial custody after his arrest. Goswami had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, challenging his “illegal arrest”. He had sought immediate release and directions to quash the first information report filed against him in 2018. The Bombay High Court had on November 7 reserved its order on his interim bail plea.
Apart from Koshyari, several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah have voiced their support for Goswami and condemned the Maharashtra government for his arrest. On November 8, the party’s leaders Tajinder Bagga and Kapil Mishra were detained for staging a demonstration, seeking the journalist’s release. They held a protest near the Mahatma Gandhi memorial around 9 am.
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