Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Arnab Goswami.
AFTER the arrest of Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in connection with a case of abetment to suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik, and the subsequent press conference by Naik’s family, the three constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi government on Wednesday demanded an investigation against police officials who allegedly put pressure on the Naik family to close the case. The NCP also demanded that opposition leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis be made a co-accused in the case.
“From the press conference of Naik’s family, it has become clear that pressure was… put on them to sign papers related to closure of the suicide case. Since at that time, the Home ministry portfolio was with then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, he should be made a co-accused in the case. The police officials who tried to pressure Naik family should also be made co-accused,” said NCP state spokesperson Umesh Patil.
Patil said the way BJP ministers and leaders have come forward to support Goswamiclearly reveals that “he (Goswami) is a BJP worker”. “In Uttar Pradesh, when a journalist wrote an article, she was charged under the Atrocities Act. BJP leaders and ministers never came forward to support her. Similarly, several journalists have been arrested in the country but BJP never took their side,” he said.
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Patil said since the Naik family has said they were asked to sign papers in the office of a joint commissioner of police, NCP has sought investigation into this entire episode. “The nation wants to know when two people have committed suicide and when a suicide note has been found, specifically naming the person, why the accused was not arrested,” said Patil.
Shiv Sena leader Neelam Gorhe, who is the deputy speaker of Legislative Council, said, “There is need for a proper investigation into the allegations made by the Naik family. It seems there was pressure to suppress the facts and prevent the arrest of the three accused. If the police officers are found guilty, action should also be taken against them…”.
Criticising BJP’s allegation that an ‘Emergency-like situation’ exists in Maharashtra, Gorhe said, “This is about justice to a family whose two members were forced to end their lives…Instead of seeking justice for an aggrieved family, BJP is supporting the accused. A case has been filed against Arnab Goswami and two others… to call the arrest an Emergency-like situation is in insult to Anvay Naik, who was forced to commit suicide along with his mother. BJP is parading lies to the people and is backing the wrong person.”
Describing the arrest of Goswami as “true tribute to Anvay Naik”, state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, “For two years, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government suppressed the case. Threats were given and pressure put on Naik family. Therefore, the Congress demands that an investigation be conducted to find the other culprits in the case.”
Sawant said instead of registering Goswami’s statement in Alibaug, it was registered in the office of a top police officer. “It needs to be ascertained why special treatment was given to Goswami,” he said.
Congress leader Gopal Tiwari said, “Arnab Goswami is an accused and BJP is supporting an accused. This only exposes the real face of the BJP.”
BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhaye, however, said, “The Maha Vikas Aghadi is practicing politics of vendetta. Just because Arnab Goswami is asking them inconvenient questions, they are taking action against him.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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