Troubled grew for Arnab Goswami on Friday after the Mumbai Police filed another FIR against four Republic TV employees for trying to cause ‘disaffection’ amongst members of the police force. Goswami’s TV channel claimed that the Mumbai Police had registered an FIR against the entire editorial team working for Republic TV. This came just days after Goswami launched a tirade against Salman Khan.
According to the Livelaw website, the FIR was registered at NM Joshi Marg police station under Section 3(1) of the Police (Incitement to Disaffection) Act, 1922 read with Section 500, 34 of Indian Penal Code on a complaint filed by PSI Shashikant Pawar, Special Branch 1.
Goswami and his team have been accused of using terms such as ‘revolt brewing against Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’ in their TV broadcasts.
A statement by Republic TV said that its editorial staff had been booked for a serious non-bailable offence for inciting to cause disaffection among members of the police force and ‘defaming the Mumbai Police under sections 500 and 34 of the IPC.’
A visibly angry Arnab Goswami slammed the Mumbai Police and said, “For the first time in Indian history, an FIR has been filed against every editorial staff of a network. This means that 1000 employees of the Republic Media Network have been booked by the Mumbai police. They (Mumbai police) say ‘How can you air the Hansa report?’ and we said, ‘we will not reveal our sources’. Hence half an hour ago, Param Bir Singh instructed to file a case against all Republic editorial staff. The staff who are part of the production team, graphics team, promos team – we produce the news together. Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, let there be a one-on-one now.”
Goswami is already facing a probe in the TRP scam by the Mumbai Police. He has accused Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh of vendetta against him.
Earlier this week, several top executives of Republic TV faced an intense grilling in the TRP scam. Singh had made a stunning revelation in a press conference alleging Republic TV’s involvement in the TRP scam amidst the channel’s coverage on the death of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
Goswami had also targeted Salman Khan and launched several disparaging jibes such as ‘senior citizen’ and ‘Bigg Boss of drugs’ against the Bollywood actor. Earlier this week, Goswami had also dared India TV founder Rajat Sharma for a face-off on the latter’s channel.