Samyabrata Ray Goswami, Senior Executive Editor, Republic TV, and Arnab Goswami’s wife, in a press release said, her husband, the Editor-in-Chief of the leading news network in the country, has become subject to assault, physical harm, illegal arrest and all of this despite being in clear public sight, has not been met with any intervention.
“With Arnab publicly disclosing the threat to his life and the atrocities he is facing in custody, the law and order officers and the entire state and national machinery will be held responsible if any harm is inflicted upon my husband,” she said.
Smt Goswami appealed to the institutions ‘that still hold truth to power and stand tall as a pillar of our great democracy’ to take note of the gross abuse and misuse of power at play to punish a journalist who demanded accountability. “A precedent is being set today for our democracy. I turn to the great institutions with the hope that those in power will not remain blind or mute to the atrocity on one man, one citizen, one journalist, one news network and the free press at large, anymore,” she added.
Statement issued by Samyabrata Ray Goswami, Senior Executive Editor, Republic TV:
This morning my Editor-in-chief and husband, who has spent 4 nights in judicial custody, was being dragged and lugged by the Maharashtra Police in a blacked-out police van to Taloja Jail. He was repeatedly saying ‘my life is under threat’ but to no avail. He repeatedly said that the jailer assaulted him after he asked for access to his lawyers, which was shockingly denied. He detailed the assault being inflicted on him during this custody and pleaded, hands folded, to the Supreme Court of India for intervention and bail. An innocent man and journalist of decades of repute, a journalist doing his duty for the nation, has been assaulted, harassed and framed on fake charges. He has been thrown into jail with no reprieve. The state machinery has turned into a handmaiden for politically motivated aggression and the pillars of democracy cannot be spectators to the grave and brazen human rights abuses and state excesses deployed against a citizen in the state of Maharashtra by the state machinery.
In the state of Maharashtra, institutions meant to safeguard law and order have become violators and assaulters in uniform. Fundamental rights are being trampled upon, due process is witnessing an egregious breakdown and institutional integrity is endangered like never before. My husband, the Editor-in-Chief of the leading news network in the country, has become subject to assault, physical harm, illegal arrest and all of this despite being in clear public sight, has not been met with any intervention.
With Arnab publicly disclosing the threat to his life and the atrocities he is facing in custody, the law and order officers and the entire state and national machinery will be held responsible if any harm is inflicted upon my husband.
I humbly appeal to the institutions that still hold truth to power and stand tall as a pillar of our great democracy to take note of the gross abuse and misuse of power at play to punish a journalist who demanded accountability. A precedent is being set today for our democracy. I turn to the great institutions with the hope that those in power will not remain blind or mute to the atrocity on one man, one citizen, one journalist, one news network and the free press at large, anymore.
