Govt asks CID to re-probe suicide abetment case against Arnab Goswami

The Alibaug police had closed the case last year stating that enough evidence was not found against Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of The Republic, and two others to chargesheet them in the case.

The abetment to suicide case registered against Arnab Goswami and two others in 2018 that had been closed by Raigad police last year will now be re-investigated by the state CID, the Maharashtra government announced on Tuesday.

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said the CID will re-investigate the case based on a request by the daughter of Anvay Naik, who along with his mother Kumud Naik were found dead at their bungalow in Alibaug, in Raigad district near Mumbai, in May 2018.

The local police had closed the case last year stating that enough evidence was not found against Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV news channel, and two others to chargesheet them in the case.

Anvay was managing director of Concorde Designs, a Mumbai-based architectural and interior designing firm, his mother was on the firm’s board of directors.

Republic TV had earlier stated that it had cleared all payments due to Concorde Designs.

On Tuesday, Deshmukh tweeted, “Adnya Naik had complained to me that Alibaug Police had not investigated non-payment of dues from Arnab Goswami’s Republic, which drove her entrepreneur father and grandma to suicide in May 2018. I’ve ordered a CID re-investigation of the case.”

Adnya, Anvay’s daughter, had also alleged that the police had not investigated the angle of Rs 83 lakh that Goswami had not paid her father, which drove him to commit suicide.

Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar said, “We had registered a case of abetment to suicide against three persons when the body was found based…. However, last April we submitted a summary report before a court stating that there was not enough evidence to file a chargesheet against the accused.”

An officer said it had come to light that while Anvay had committed suicide, the postmortem report indicated Kumud had been strangulated. Following that, the police also registered a case of murder.

The police suspect Anvay may have killed his mother and then committed suicide. While Kumud’s body was found on the ground-floor sofa, Anvay was found hanging on the first floor by the bungalow’s caretaker.

The police had found a suicide note in English which purportedly stated said Anvay and his mother decided to take the extreme step since payments due to them were being cleared by owners of three companies — Republic TV, Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks.

The three firms owed Concorde Designs Rs 83 lakh, Rs 4 crore and Rs 55 lakh, respectively, the note had stated.

An officer said that during investigation they found Anvay was in heavy debt and was struggling to repay money to contractors. Raigad police also found that Naik had an NC (non-cognizable case) registered against a contractor in Mumbai after the latter had threatened him to repay the money he had taken.