Arnab Goswami moves SC again, seeks quashing of FIR for ‘communalising’ Bandra migrant incident

Just a day after the state of Maharashtra moved the Supreme Court against Republic TV's Arnab Goswami, the Editor-in-Chief of the news channel has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of a fresh FIR filed against him, reports legal news website BarandBench.com.

A fresh FIR was registered against Goswami by Secretary of Raza Educational Welfare Society, Irfan Abubakar Shaikh. Goswami is accused of disturbing communal harmony through his flagship debate show on the Hindi News Channel, Republic Bharat where he allegedly communalised the Bandra migrant incident.

After the nation-wide lockdown was extended on April 14, a large gathering of people had assembled in Mumbai's Bandra in what appeared to be a gathering of migrants hopeful of returning home. According to the petition, Goswami, in his debate show called this incident a "conspiracy" and labelled the migrants as "actors" who were planted by people with "vested interests".

Goswami questioned why such a large gathering had assembled near a mosque at a time when physical distancing ought to be maintained and hinted at the incident being a conspiracy by the minority community.

In relation to this debate show, an FIR was filed against Arnab Goswami and charged with various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 153 dealing with provocation with the intent to cause riot, Section 153A on promoting enmity between groups, 295A which deals with outraging religious feelings of any class of citizens, among others. Other Sections invoked against Goswami are Sections 500, 505 (2), 511 and 120 B of the IPC.

Goswami has moved the Supreme Court, seeking for this FIR to be quashed and for a blanket direction that no cognizance of any complaint would be taken by any court nor any FIR registered by the police on the same cause of action as in the present writ petition.

He has also sought a restraint against the "servant and agents" of the State of Maharashtra from filing any FIR against him in relation to his debate programs on the issue of the Bandra incident.

In his petition Arnab has claimed that the ‘Congress Party ecosystem’ also tried to build a fake narrative of a fabricated migrant crisis in Mumbai.

In his petition, he claims that Republic TV was the first channel to report the fact that political interest groups, mainly leaders of the Congress were spreading fake news and orchestrating lockdown violations in Mumbai which is a matter of national concern.

Goswami claims that the FIR is "politically motivated" and goes on to claim that same has been registered as the Mumbai Police "harbours ill will" against the petitioner.

"The FIR is politically motivated and has been registered as the Mumbai police harbors ill-will and malice towards the Petitioner as evident from the manner in which investigation is being conducted by the Mumbai police (in the defamation case filed by Congress worker)," says the petition.

Goswami's petition says that since the police realises that the anchor could not be "framed" in the case in relation to objectionable comments made against Sonia Gandhi, a new FIR has now been registered.

"The Mumbai Police has registered the FIR based on a complaint filed by the Respondent No 3 (Irfan Abubakar Shaikh), which is patently false, vindictive, frivolous, malicious and precipitated with malice," he adds.

Goswami asserts, even in his petition, that the Bandra incident was a "fake migrant crisis" which Goswami "unearthed" through his debate program.

Arnab Goswami in his prayer has also sought for adequate security to his family and colleagues at Republic TV. Arnab Goswami in his previous petition had also sough for protection from the Central Government.