Arresting Arnab: Due Process Was Not Followed
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-11-06 07:48:30
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Although this is not to condone a crime committed by anyone, however influential and belonging to whichever profession, one feels that the arrest of Republic TV's Arnab Goswami is political vendetta. One says this for the simple reason that even if the police wanted to reopen a previously closed case (although they legally cannot do so unless new evidence comes to light and even then after applying and getting permission from jurisdictional court), the need to arrest Goswami in the case would have come at a very later stage. The speed at with which he was arrested, with the attendant publicity, smacked of vindictiveness. It also showed that all political parties in India are the same. They make a lot of noise about freedom of press, institutions and personal liberty when in the opposition but when they are running the government, they indulge in the same suppressing tactics.
The facts of the case are simple. An interior decorator and his mother committed suicide a couple of years back. In his suicide note, the man wrote that he was forced to take the extreme step as several firms, including a company in which Arnab Goswami had interests, had failed to pay his dues in excess of Rs 5 crore. The case was closed by the then government, of which the Shiv Sena (that is ruling Maharashtra now with NCP and Congress) was a part of, due to lack of evidence. If the court's permission has not been taken to reopen the case, the action is blatantly illegal. Even if the court had granted permission, the correct procedure would have been to issue a summons for questioning him first. Arresting him like a criminal was unwarranted.
Although Arnab Goswami has been running a high octane campaign on Republic TV against the Maharashtra government for the past 7 months by questioning its handling of the migrant crisis, the coronavirus crisis and the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case, dissent cannot be crushed by such means. Yes, the law must take its own course and if Goswami is guilty of abetment, he must be punished. But for that, due process must be followed and the case must proceed as per law. The Maharashtra government cannot make a spectacle of Goswami, or any other citizen for that matter, just to teach him a lesson for going against it.
