Maharashtra Govt Asks CID To Re-Investigate Abetment To Suicide Case Against Arnab Goswami
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Maharashtra, 27 May 2020 12:24 PM GMT
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The suicide case is of a 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik, who along with his mother Kumud Naik were found dead in their bunglow in Alibag in May 2018, due to the heavy debt.
The suicide case is of a 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik, who along with his mother Kumud Naik were found dead in their bunglow in Alibag in May 2018, due to the heavy debt.
In the suicide note left by Naik, he stated the reason for the extreme step as the non-payment of dues of worth Rs 5.40 crore to him for the services rendered from his company Concorde Designs, by Goswami and two others - Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks.
Concorde Designs is a Mumbai-based architectural and interior designing firm. Naik's mother was on the firm's board of directors.
The order was issued by State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, over a request by Naik's daughter Adnya, alleging that the Alibag Police in neighbouring Raigad district did not probe the case that had driven her father and grandmother to suicide.
Adnya Naik had complained to me that #AlibaugPolice had not investigated non-payment of dues from #ArnabGoswami's @republic which drove her entrepreneur father & grandmom to suicide in May 2018. I've ordered a CID re-investigation of the case.#MaharashtraGovernmentCares
— ANIL DESHMUKH (@AnilDeshmukhNCP) May 26, 2020
The case was closed by the Raigad police last year, stating the lack of sufficient evidence for a chargesheet against Goswami and two others. Adnya alleged that the police did not investigate the angle of Rs 83 lakh that Goswami had to pay her father, which drove him to commit suicide, The Indian Express reported.
Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia owned Rs 4 crore, and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks Rs 55 lakh.
Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar said, "We had registered a case of abetment to suicide against three persons when the body was found based…. However, last April we submitted a summary report before a court stating that there was not enough evidence to file a chargesheet against the accused."
Paraskar informed that the postmortem report indicated Kumud had been strangled, suspecting Anvay to have killed his mother and then committed suicide, post which the police registered a case of murder.
However, The Republic TV earlier denied the charges, claiming them as false malicious campaigns and a latest attempt by the "Vadra Congress to pressurise the network".
Last month, Akshata Naik, Anvay's widow, also posted a video that was tweeted by Maharashtra Congress, alleging Goswami for her husband and her mother-in-law's death.
Mrs.Akshata Naik has alleged that her entrepreneur husband and her mother in law had to commit suicide due to non payment of dues from Mr. Arnab Goswami's @republic.
— Maharashtra Congress (@INCMaharashtra) May 5, 2020
This is serious and needs further investigation. pic.twitter.com/sp0dovnMDr
Earlier this month, the journalist was booked for inflammatory comments against Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on his channel over the Palghar lynching case, and blaming her for the alleged attack on Goswami later in the evening on his way back home.