The Mumbai police had today picked up Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami from his house in relation to a 2018 abetment to suicide case which was already closed by the police. The investigation in the case has been reopened by Alibaug police on the directions of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Adnya Naik had complained to me that #AlibaugPolice had not investigated non-payment of dues from #ArnabGoswami‘s @republic which drove her entrepreneur father & grandmom to suicide in May 2018. I’ve ordered a CID re-investigation of the case.#MaharashtraGovernmentCares
— ANIL DESHMUKH (@AnilDeshmukhNCP) May 26, 2020
Deshmukh said on Twitter that deceased interior designer Anvay Naik’s daughter Adnya Naik told him that the Alibaug police did not investigate the non-payment of dues by Republic TV to her father which eventually led her father and grandmother to commit suicide. He said that he has ordered the re-investigation of the case by the CID.
Republic TV Press Release
Republic TV has issued a statement claiming that ARG Outlier media Pvt Ltd, the firm that owns and operates Republic TV, had paid 90 percent of the dues to deceased Anvay Naik’s company Concorde Designs Pvt. Ltd. (CDPL) over two years ago and that the remaining amount was to be paid on the completion of the pending work that has not been undertaken ever since. The statement further said ARG Outlier media Pvt Ltd made several attempts for complete and final settlement of all claims but the absence of shareholders or directors in CDPL rendered the attempts unsuccessful.
It further said that no concrete response was received by ARG Outlier media Pvt Ltd from Adnya Naik and Akshata Naik, wife of Anvay Naik, despite making several attempts to reach out to CDPL to ensure full and final payment. The statement said that Akshata Naik wanted ARG Outlier media Pvt Ltd to make all the due payments to third party vendors but ARG Outlier media Pvt Ltd ha contractual obligations to make due payments only to CDPL and not third party vendors.
Republic TV, in its statement, said that Goswami’s arrest in the closed suicide case is a “motivated, malice-ridden and vindictive attempt to punish Republic Media Network for speaking truth to power”.
The 2018 Abetment to Suicide Case
An FIR was filed against Arnab Goswami in 2018 in an alleged abetment to suicide case. An interior designer named Anvay Naik had committed suicide in his bungalow in Alibaug naming Goswami, and 2 other persons in his suicide note over some alleged non-payment of dues. Naik wrote that two persons named Feroz Shaikh and Niteish Sarda owed him Rs 5.4 crore. It was alleged that Goswami had not paid Naik Rs 83 lakh for a design project of a studio. The case was closed by the court after a closure report was filed by the police.
