Arnab Goswami Shifted To Taloja Jail; Alleges Assault, Threat To Life

Mumbai: Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami was on Sunday shifted to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai from Alibag primary school, which was converted into a makeshift prison facility in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

Kaushtubh Kurlekar, superintendent of police (SP), Taloja jail told The Hindustan Times, “He will be kept for a few days in a quarantine centre inside the prison before being shifted to the barrack.”

When en route to the jail in a police van, Goswami alleged that he was pushed and assaulted and that there was a threat to his life. “My life is under threat, my life is under threat, I’m not being allowed to speak to my lawyers, I was pushed and assaulted this morning, they said they won’t allow me to speak to my lawyers, please tell the people of the country my life is under threat,” Goswami told the reporters.

Appealing for her husband’s “immediate release”, Samyabrata Ray Goswami, senior executive editor of Republic TV, in a statement said, “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 his lawyers, which was shockingly denied. He detailed the assault being inflicted on him during this custody and pleaded, hands folded, to the Supreme Court (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…,” HT reported.

Goswami was arrested on November 4 along with two other accused, Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sardam, in a 2018 suicide abetment case of interior designer and architect Anvay Naik.

Goswami is currently in a  14-day judicial custody, which will end on November 18.