New Delhi: Journalist Arnab Goswami’s face-off with the Congress continued this week as he hit back at the latter’s demand for an investigation into allegations that he abetted the suicide of an architect and his mother two years ago.
The Twitter handle of the Maharashtra Congress posted a video this week where the architect’s widow, Akshata Naik, reiterated an allegation that had led to an FIR against Goswami, who owns the news channel Republic TV, and two others in 2018.
Republic TV issued a statement Thursday rebutting the charge, saying the video was the latest attempt by the “Vadra Congress to pressurise the network”. It also claimed the case against ARG Outlier Media Pvt Limited, Republic TV’s parent company, was closed by a court after police filed a closure report. Akshata, it said, “failed to provide any evidence to back her unfounded allegations”.
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.
This is serious and needs further investigation. pic.twitter.com/sp0dovnMDr— Maharashtra Congress (@INCMaharashtra) May 5, 2020
Statement by REPUBLIC Media Network on the latest attempt by the Vadra Congress to pressurise the network. Here are the facts so that people know how desperate the Vadra Congress has become: pic.twitter.com/YoCaXGqVOH
— Republic (@republic) May 7, 2020
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‘Serious allegations’
In May 2018, Goswami and two others were booked by Alibaug police for allegedly abetting the suicide of 53-year-old Anvay Naik, an architect, and his mother. In his suicide note, Anvay had reportedly claimed that Goswami and the two others — Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, a media services firm, and Niteesh Sarda of Smart work, which provides “flexible workspaces” — owed him a total of Rs 5.4 crore.
According to the FIR, Goswami owed Rs 83 lakh to the architect, who owned a firm called Concorde Designs Pvt Ltd.
In a tweet posted Tuesday, the Maharashtra Congress shared a video of Akshata talking about the case and said the matter was “serious and needs further investigation”.
Republic TV reacted Thursday, issuing a statement to bring to light “real facts” on the “unfounded allegations and videos” on social media.
“These fabricated lies have emerged as part of a larger vindictive exercise by the Congress party against Republic Media Network for functioning as an independent news organisation. This is apparent from the fact that the Congress is amplifying this lie,” the statement said.
The case, it added, was “closed by a court of law”.
According to the statement, ARG Outlier Media Pvt Limited had paid 90 per cent of all dues over two years ago. It said it had since made “repeated attempts” to make a final settlement and had the full correspondence to prove it.
The dues, it added, were transferred to the bank account of Anvay’s company in July 2019, but returned because the account was “inoperative”.
It claimed Akshata had demanded that the dues should be paid to third-party vendors and not Concorde, but refused to cooperate for the settlement “despite emails and messages”.
“It is hereby stated that any attempt to misrepresent facts, make false claims, and target ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd in the matter will be met with legal action both under civil law, and under criminal law including on provisions of criminal conspiracy, defamation, and criminal intimidation (sic),” it stated.
Goswami and the Congress have been on a warpath since last month, when the former was booked after making “inflammatory remarks” against party president Sonia Gandhi. The journalist had also alleged Congress involvement in an attack on him in Mumbai.
Also Read: Arnab faces multiple FIRs for anti-Sonia remarks after blaming Congress for midnight ‘attack’