Mumbai Police issues show cause notice to Arnab Goswami
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The Mumbai Police has issued the show-cause notice under Section 108 of the Code of Criminal Conduct. A case had already been registered against Goswami regarding his coverage of the Palghar and Bandra incidents, under IPC sections 153 (giving provocation to cause riot) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion).
In his show "Pucchtha Hai Bharat", Goswami had termed the killing of two sadhus in Palghar as an attack on Hindus and questioned whether people would be more outraged if the victims had not been Hindus. He hinted that they had been murdered for wearing saffron-coloured clothes which are sacred to Hindu monks.
In a public news release following the notice, Republic TV strongly condemned the Mumbai Police for their actions, calling it an "openly spiteful and deeply motivated witch hunt".
"The Hon'ble Supreme Court in its judgment dated 19th May 2020 held that no other complaint can be initiated in respect of the Palghar broadcast of 21 April 2020 and extended protection 'against any coercive steps arising out of and in relation to the' FIRs till a legal remedy was sought in the Bombay High Court.
The Hon'ble Bombay High Court judgment of 30th June 2020 suspended all criminal proceedings with respect to the FIRs registered against Arnab Goswami, based on the Palghar and Bandra news reports," the channel said.
This is the latest in a series of back-and-forth legal action between Republic TV and the Mumbai Police which is already investigating the channel and India Today for TRP fraud.
The Crime Intelligence Unit has also ordered Republic executive editor Niranjan Narayanaswamy and journalist Abhishek Kapoor to appear at its offices at 12 noon today as part of investigations into the TRP fraud case.
The channel has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has reiterated that the Mumbai Police is exacting revenge upon it for exposing mistakes made by the police during the Sushant Singh Rajput investigations.
Yesterday 34 major Bollywood production houses had filed a case for defamation against Republic TV and India Today for what they claimed was baseless and aggressive attacks made on the Bollywood industry during reporting on the case of Sushant Singh Rajput's death.