Mumbai court sent Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami to 14-day judicial custody

A Maharashtra court sent Arnab Goswami, Republic TV Editor, to judicial custody for 14 days on November 4. The case pertains to the abetment to suicide of an interior designer Anvay Naik in 2018. The Magistrate Court at Alibaug refused to grant 14-day police custody.

The Mumbai police have arrested Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami along with two other accused on Wednesday morning. The police have alleged that the three are involved in a case of abetment to suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018.

Naik used to run an architect firm, Concord Design Private Limited, which had apparently constructed the Republic TV channel two years ago. The Channel was supposed to pay his dues to the tune of Rs 83 lakh which it allegedly refused.

According to police, besides Republic TV, the two other companies - iCastX Technologies and Smartworks - also owned dues of Rs 4 cr and 55 lakhs respectively and the three collectively held Rs 5.4 cr.

Niteish Sarda of Smartworks and Feroz Shaikh of IcastX Technologies have also been arrested from their residences in Jogeshwari and Kandivali respectively.

The police said that Naik and his mother had committed suicide at their farmhouse in Kavir Village in Alibaug. The suicide note allegedly said that the two were taking the extreme step as the three companies had not cleared their dues. The police had registered a case against the three but in 2018 it filed a closure report on the ground that there as no enough evidence against the three.

In May 2020, the home minister of Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh asked the state CID to reinvestigate the case. Deshmukh said that the reinvestigation has been ordered at the request of Naik’s daughter.

Republic TV has rubbished all these allegations in a press statement.