The Raigad Police implicated Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and two others in a 1,914-page chargesheet filed before the Alibaug Court in the abetment to suicide case of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik.

Naik, an interior decorator, had named Goswami, Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks as responsible for the suicide. He had worked for them and wrote in the suicide note that they had not paid him Rs 5.40 crore for the work.

The accused trio has been charged under IPC Sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 109 (punishment for abetment) and 34 (common intention). More than 50 persons were named as witnesses in the chargesheet.

According to the chargesheet, forensic reports showed that the suicide note by Naik was not written under pressure. The handwriting of Naik has also matched the writing in the suicide note. The police relies on Anvay Naik’s suicide note as a dying declaration.

“We have statements of several employees of Naik, bank statements and emails to prove that non-payment of money by the three accused drove him to kill himself,” said Inspector Jamil Shaikh, the Investigating Officer.

The chargesheet has been filed a day after Goswami had filed an application before the Bombay High Court seeking a stay on the filing of the same, and on any further probe into the case.

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Goswami had also sought the transfer of the case to the CBI or any other independent investigating agency outside the purview of the Maharashtra government.

New Delhi (ILNS): Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, who was arrested from his home this morning in connection with an abetment to suicide case was later produced before the an Alibaug court. Mumbai Police has sought a 14-day police remand for Goswami.

The case pertains to the suicide of the family of architect Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik. In a note before suicide, they had named Goswami and two others as reasons of their bankruptcy and death. The other two named have also been picked up. The case is two years old, and had been closed for lack of evidence and proof, but has now been reopened.

After Arnab Goswami alleged that he was manhandled and injured by the police and that they used force to arrest him from his Worli residence, the court sought his medical report from the Alibaug civil hospital.

Just after his arrest, several Union ministers came out in support of the journalist, condemning the Mumbai Police’s move and compared the current situation to the Emergency which was imposed in 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Apart from Goswami, two other accused, Niteish and Feroz Shaikh have been booked under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A suicide note purportedly written by late Anvay Naik states that the deceased lent money to Arnab and two others Feroz Shaikh and Nitish Sarda and they did not return him Rs 5.40 crore which led to his financial constraints.

Subsequently, in 2018 the Alibaug police filed a case of abetment to suicide. However, in 2019, the case was closed by the Raigad Police.

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This comes in the backdrop of Goswami’s row with the Mumbai Police over its investigations into a fake TRP case where it was alleged that Republic TV is among the three channels involved in manipulating TRPs by bribing households for viewership. 

-India Legal Bureau