Injuries to spinal cord, and forced to consume liquids: Arnab Goswami alleges torture in his bail plea

Republic Television editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, who was arrested along with two others in a 2018 case of abetment of suicide, has accused the Mumbai Police of torture in his bail plea. In his bail plea, Goswami has made some shocking revelations as how he was manhandled by the cops during his detention. According to Bar and Bench, a website that covers legal news, Arnab Goswami claimed in his petition that during the course of arrest a senior police officer hit him with a heavy boot, he received a half a foot deep gash in his left hand and suffered serious injury to his spinal cord. Goswami also alleged that he was “forced to drink a liquid” by police officers while they surrounded him. He also said that after drinking the liquid he “choked”.

The high court was on Saturday hearing the petition filed by Goswami seeking interim bail and challenging his arrest in the 2018 abetment of suicide case of interior designer Anvay Naik.Today is the third day of the hearing of the plea. Yesterday, the High Court had asked Arnab Goswami to file a separate bail application in the High court as well. Representing Arnab Goswami, Harish Salve in the Mumbai High Court had argued yesterday that the arrest of Arnab Goswami itself was illegal and that there was no ground to keep him in custody. He had also argued that the re-opening of the case itself is dubious since the case was closed and the Magistrate has also observed that the case was re-opened without the due permission. In May 2018, an FIR was filed against Arnab Goswami after an interior designer had committed suicide in Mumbai. In a suicide note, Anvay Naik claimed Goswami owed him a total of Rs 5.4 crore. The police said that they found a suicide note where Naik said that Goswami had not cleared his dues.