Arnab Goswami shifted to Taloja jail for using mobile phone at quarantine centre in Alibaug

Mumbai: Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, arrested in connection with the suicide of an interior designer, was on Sunday shifted to Taloja Jail in Maharashtra’s Raigad district from a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Alibaug, a police official said. Goswami was moved to the Taloja Jail after he was allegedly found using a mobile phone while in judicial custody at a local school designated as COVID-19 centre for Alibaug prison in Raigad district, he said. The Raigad Crime Branch found Goswami was active on social media using somebody’s mobile phone, despite his personal mobile phone having been seized by police when he was taken into custody on 4 November, the official said. While being escorted to Taloja Jail, Goswami shouted from the police van, alleging that he was assaulted by the Alibaug jailer on Saturday evening,  that his life was in danger and he was not allowed to speak to his lawyer. Meanwhile, in a statement, Samyabrata Ray Goswami, a senior executive editor of Republic TV and Arnab Goswami’s wife, said he has been framed on fake charges. “This morning, my husband, who has spent four nights in judicial custody, 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 for intervention and bail,” she said in the statement. “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. Meanwhile, former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya in a tweet said he met the jailer of the Taloja prison on Sunday and the latter assured him that Goswami will not be harassed and he will also be provided required medical treatment. Goswami and two others — Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda — were arrested by Alibaug police on 4 November in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused. After his arrest from his Lower Parel residence in Mumbai, Goswami was taken to Alibaug, where the Chief Judicial Magistrate remanded him and the two others in judicial custody till 18 November. Goswami was then kept at a local school which has been designated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison. The Bombay High Court will on Monday pronounce its order on the interim bail application filed by Goswami and the two others in connection with the abetment of suicide case. A notice issued late Saturday night on the high court’s website said the bench would assemble at 3 pm on 9 November for the pronouncement of the order.