Two persons were arrested by the NM Joshi Marg police in Mumbai on Thursday after Republic TV co-founder and anchor Arnab Goswami alleged that he was attacked by them while he was on his home in the early hours of the day.
The police said they were informed about the incident by the police personnel deployed for protection of Mr. Goswami at 1 a.m. on Thursday. A team was sent to the Raheja Atlantis building in Worli, where Mr. Goswami stays with his wife, Samyabrata, and took the two men into custody.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Goswami reached the police station with an application signed by him, his wife and his police guards, in which he detailed the events that occurred. According to his application, he and his wife were driving home from work when the two assailants drew abreast of their car on a scooter, banged on the driver’s side window several times and threw ink on it from a bottle. They were caught by Mr. Goswami's guards, who were following him in a separate vehicle.
“We have arrested the accused and charged them with intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace under the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of the Maharashtra Media Persons and Media Institutions Act,” Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Pranaya Ashok said.
Remanded in police custody
An officer with the NM Joshi Marg police station said the duo in their 30s, identified as Pratik Mishra and Raju Borade, were residents of Pratiskha Nagar in Vikhroli. They were produced in court in the afternoon and remanded in police custody till April 25.
The police are verifying their political affiliation, although Mr. Goswami has gone on record in a video, which he later released online, to state that the duo had confessed to being from the Congress party.
“We have obtained their custody precisely for the purpose of verifying whether this offence was politically motivated. It is too early for us to comment on it at this stage,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) Abhinash Kumar said.
Mr. Goswami, in the five-minute video, accuses Congress president Sonia Gandhi of being responsible for the incident and lashes out at her for the “attack on him and his wife.”.