Continuing their witch-hunt against Republic Media Network, the Raigad Police on Friday questioned Republic TV’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) S Sundaram in connection to the 2018 suicide case of interior decorator Anvay Naik, only two days after editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was released from Taloja jail.
According to the reports, the Raigad Police had earlier summoned S Sundaram for questioning him in the 2018 suicide case. The summons to Republic TV CFO comes two days after Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was granted interim bail in the same case by the Supreme Court.
#BREAKING | Republic Media Network’s CFO Sundaram being questioned at Alibag Police Station. Tune-in for #LIVE updates here – https://t.co/jghcakh6lP pic.twitter.com/mwIkH7EShs
— Republic (@republic) November 13, 2020
Reportedly, Raigad police had summoned Sundaram after Arnab Goswami had allegedly said that making payments on behalf of the company was the job of the CFO. Accordingly, the police officials have issued summons to him and asked him to appear before them on Friday.
The officer said they will scrutinise the financial records of the accused. “A few more persons will be issued summons in the coming days,” the officer said, adding that they will also audit more financial records before filing a charge-sheet in the matter.
Supreme Court grants bail to Arnab Goswami
On Wednesday, a Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra hearing the petition said that Bombay High Court made an error in rejecting the application for grant of interim bail on technical grounds. Granting the bail to Arnab Goswami, the apex court also directed the Raigad police to ensure the compliance of the order of release of Arnab Goswami forthwith.
The Supreme Court also asked Arnab Goswami and two other accused to execute a personal bond for an amount of Rs 50,000 for release on interim bail.
Justice Chandrachud, hearing the plea had made scathing observations saying, “If we don’t interfere in this case today we will walk on path of destruction. If left to me I won’t watch the channel and you may differ in ideology but Constitutional courts will have to protect such freedoms”.
Arnab was arrested last week by the Mumbai Police after it had reopened 2018 abatement of the suicide case of an architect, Anvay Naik. On the 4th of November, 15-20 policemen armed with assault weapons and led by encounter cop Sachin Vaze had stormed into the house of Arnab Goswami and dragged him out. The 2018 case has been unilaterally opened against after it was closed in 2019 at the behest of the Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh.
