Indian TV anchor and Modi backer Arnab Goswami arrested for suicide abetment

The charges are linked to the deaths of an interior designer and his mother in 2018

Multiple ministers of Modi’s BJP condemned the Republic TV founder’s arrest, calling it a ‘sign of undeclared emergency’

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Indian television news anchor Arnab Goswami. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30pm, 4 Nov 2020Updated: 8:28pm, 4 Nov 2020

Indian police on Wednesday said they arrested a firebrand television news anchor and charged him with abetment to suicide in connection with the 2018 deaths of an interior designer and the designer’s mother.

Senior Mumbai police officer Sanjay Mohite said the charges against Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami are linked to the deaths of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother, which police determined to be suicide.

A suicide note found by the police and determined to have been written by Naik said he took his life because Goswami and two others owed him a huge sum of money and had refused to pay it back.

Goswami has denied the allegation.

Goswami is known aggressively backing up Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalist policies during his nightly shows, often shouting down opponents. Critics have accused Republic TV of pandering to Modi’s agenda at time when other media channels say press freedom is under threat.

Republic TV in a statement called Goswami’s arrest a “black day of India’s democracy” and alleged he was physically assaulted by the police. His channel showed video of Goswami being forced into a police van by the officers outside his residence in Mumbai.