Speaking on the arrest of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said “no one is above the law,” adding that the state police will “work as per the law.”
“No one is above the law. Maharashtra Police will work as per the law,” Deshmukh said, hours after Goswami was arrested by Maharashtra Police in connection with a 2018 alleged abetment to suicide case.
In May, Deshmukh, as Maharashtra’s home minister, had ordered a re-investigation into alleged death by suicide of 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik. In a suicide note, Naik had written he was taking the step as he was not being paid collective dues amounting to Rs 5.40 crore by Goswami and two others.
Following this, an FIR was registered by Alibaug Police against the three, including Goswami, but the case was closed by Raigad Police in 2019 before being its reopening was ordered by Deshmukh.
Earlier, speaking on the arrest, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, too, had said the arrest of Goswami followed “due law and procedure.” The Sena is one of the three parties currently governing Maharashtra, with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)–to which Deshmukh belongs–and the Congress being the other two.
Goswami’s arrest, which follows months of tussle with the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Police over his channel’s coverage of a host of issues, has kicked up a political storm. Several leaders from the state’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as central ministers, including Union home minister Amit Shah, have condemned his arrest.
