Law Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad is the latest to come out in support of Arnab Goswami following his arrest earlier in the day. Mumbai police arrested the Republic TV Editor-in-Chief for allegedly abetting suicide of an interior designer in 2018. Ravi Shankar Prasad called the arrest ‘seriously reprehensible, unwarranted and worrisome’.
“The arrest of senior journalist #ArnabGoswami is seriously reprehensible, unwarranted and worrisome. We had fought for freedom of Press as well while opposing the draconian Emergency of 1975”, said Ravi Shankar in a tweet. Other BJP leaders too had voiced their objections to the arrest. Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP's IT cell, tweeted, "Maharashtra government’s high handedness is appalling. Their assault on Arnab Goswami and Republic is an act of vengeance because they questioned Sonia Gandhi’s silence on Palghar. If you didn’t know what Emergency looked like, Congress has rolled it out again! Sena-NCP complicit." Union Minister Prakash Javadekar condemned the arrest of Arnab Goswami. Javadekar tweeted, "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." Union Minister Smriti Irani tweeted, “Those in the free press who don’t stand up today in support of Arnab, you are now tactically in support of fascism. You may not like him, you may not approve of him, you may despise his very existence but if you stay silent you support suppression. Who speaks if you are next?”
The abetment to suicide case against Arnab Goswami relates to the suicides of an interior designer and his mother. Arnab Goswami and two others were booked by the Alibaug Police in May 2018 for allegedly abetting the suicide of 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother. Anvay Naik was the managing director of Concorde Designs Private Limited. In a suicide note, Anvay Naik claimed Goswami and the other two persons—Feroz Shaikh and Niteish Sarda—owed him a total of Rs 5.4 crore. The Times of India had then reported Arnab Goswami had allegedly not paid Rs 83 lakh for a design project of a studio. Republic TV had then dismissed the charges as the work of vested interests and declared it had paid all dues for the design contract.
