Raigad court sends Arnab Goswami to 14-day judicial custody

Raigad (Maharashtra), November 4, 2020

A Raigad magistrate has remanded Republic TV Managing Director and Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami to 14 days' judicial custody after a marathon five-hour hearing here late on Wednesday night.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate rejected the prosecution's plea for 14 days' police custody for Goswami, who was arrested early on Wednesday morning in a case concerning the twin suicides of architect Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik on May 5, 2018.

"The police have lost...," Goswami shouted out of a police van and displayed the V-sign after the court hearing.

His legal team is expected to move the same court for bail on Thursday.

Earlier this morning, the Raigad Police raided Goswami's home and placed him under arrest.

A senior police officer Sachin Vaze said that Goswami was arrested in the abetment to suicide case of 2018, which had been closed earlier and has now been reopened.

A police team swooped on the Republic TV chief and picked him up from his home even as his family protested while his colleagues started rushing to the spot for live coverage.

The channel strongly slammed the move for "parading the editor of a top Indian news channel like a criminal, pulled by the hair, threatened, not allowed to drink water" after 20-30 policemen barged in there.

Speaking from one of the vehicles, Goswami said he was assaulted, even as his shaken colleagues made direct emotional appeals to Supreme Court and High Court judges "seeking justice" for what was happening right in the middle of Mumbai, in a telecast of the developments.

Goswami managed to speak from a police van and said that he was assaulted, his son was beaten and his in-laws were pushed aside, and that he was likely to be taken to Alibaug in Raigad.

IANS