Arnab Goswami, TV Journalist, Is Arrested in Mumbai

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Mr. Goswami, 47, is no stranger to controversy. Early this year, the Mumbai police opened an investigation into his channel, Republic TV, accusing it of fomenting hatred against Muslims by targeting a mosque outside a railway station, linking it to a nearby protest by migrant workers.

Last month, police officials in Mumbai accused Republic TV and two smaller channels of rigging the ratings system by paying poor people the equivalent of a few dollars a month to tune in to the station and leave their televisions on. Mr. Goswami, a co-founder of the channel, has strongly denied the accusations of bribery, saying that he was being targeted because of coverage critical of the Mumbai police.

The latest case against him pertains to the suicide of an interior designer, Anvay Naik, and his mother in 2018. According to Mr. Naik’s family members, he named the journalist in his suicide note, accusing Mr. Goswami and two others of not paying money that was owed to him.

On Wednesday morning, officials raided Mr. Goswami’s house in an upscale section of south Mumbai, where, according to the police, he and his wife took almost an hour to open the door.

Videos of the raid show Mr. Goswami shouting at the officers, telling them not to manhandle him, as another officer repeatedly requests that Mr. Goswami’s wife, who also works at the TV station, put down her cellphone, which she says is recording the event “live.”

“You have physically assaulted me,” Mr. Goswami says, as an officer repeatedly requests that he cooperate. When he refuses to get up from a couch, another officer steps forward and says, “It is over. You are arrested.”

Akshata Naik, the widow of Anvay Naik, said that her husband had worked hard on a design project for Republic TV, but that not being paid for the work for over a year had left him penniless and forced him to commit suicide.



Source : Nytimes