Arnab shifted to Taloja jail in Maha
Republic TV editor-inchief and prime time anchor Arnab Goswami was shifted from Alibag primary school, which has been converted into a makeshift prison facility in Maharashtra’s Raigad district because of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai on Sunday morning.
Kaushtubh Kurlekar, superintendent of police (SP), Taloja jail, said: “He will be kept for a few days in a quarantine centre inside the prison before he is shifted to the barrack.”
Samyabrata Ray Goswami, senior executive editor of Republic TV and Goswami’s wife, put out a statement appealing for his “immediate release” and lashing out at the Maharastra government for its “human rights abuse and excesses”. “On Sunday morning, my husband, who has spent four nights in judicial custody (JC), was being dragged and lugged by the Maharashtra Police in a blacked-out police van to Taloja Jail. He was repeatedly saying ‘my life is under threat’ but to no avail. He repeatedly said that the jailer assaulted him after he asked for access to
Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami being shifted to Taloja Central Prison from Alibag, in Navi Mumbai on Sunday
his lawyers, which was shockingly denied. He detailed the assault being inflicted on him during this custody and pleaded, hands folded, to the SC for intervention and bail. An innocent man and journalist of decades of repute, who is doing his duty for the nation, has been assaulted, harassed and framed on fake charges. He has been thrown into jail with no reprieve...,” she said in the statement.
Goswami was arrested on November 4 along with two other accused, Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda, from Mumbai in connection with the 2018 abetment
suicide case of architect and interior designer Anvay Naik, and they were produced in the Alibag district and session court on the same day.
Goswami was sent to a 14-day judicial custody later at night on that day following a hearing that lasted for six hours. His custody expires on November 18.
Goswami also moved the Bombay HC on Saturday and his legal team argued that Goswami’s arrest and detention were illegal because the case was closed in April 2019 by the then BJP-led government in Maharashtra.