INDIA’S RIGHT-WING TV ANCHOR ARNAB GOSWAMI GETS INTERIM BAIL FROM SC

Wed 11 November 2020:

Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami has been granted bail by the Supreme Court in a 2018 abetment to suicide case. He and two others were arrested last week in connection with the suicide of architect Anvay Naik and his mother.

A two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee pulled up the Maharashtra government over the TV anchor’s arrest as they heard the petition through video conferencing.

The Supreme Court said Arnab Goswami must cooperate with the probe. The court also said the release of the three must not be delayed by two days and asked them to furnish bonds of ₹ 50,000.

The hearing comes two days after the Bombay High Court turned down Mr Goswami’s plea against his arrest and the reopening of the case.

“I do not watch the channel,” Justice Chandrachud had said earlier, but asserted that if constitutional courts did not interfere, “we are traveling the path of destruction undeniably”.

Mr Goswami’s lawyer Harish Salve had argued in the hearing: “Is Arnab Goswami a terrorist? Are there any murder charges on him? Why can’t he be given bail?”

Those who criticize Goswami says, his channel led the communal coverage of coronavirus, during which we saw a section of the media directly blamed Muslims for spreading the virus in the country and used phrases like “corona jihad”, “corona terrorism” and “corona bombs”.

The shrill and hysterical reporting against the Tablighi Jamaat was a dog whistle against Muslims in general, and created so much resentment and fear in the minds of ordinary Hindus that in at least four states, including the national capital, many residential societies put up boards disallowing Muslim fruit and vegetable vendors from entering. A milk-seller in Himachal Pradesh died by suicide after villagers insulted him over the spread of coronavirus.

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