Pramod Chunchuwar | India Tomorrow
MUMBAI, AUGUST 9—It has been more than two months since Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced to reopen the case against controversial TV anchor Arnab Goswami in connection with the suicide of interior designer Anvay Naikh and his mother Kumud Naik, there has been no progress in this regard at all.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MLA from Thane Pratap Sarnaik has written a letter to Deshmukh pressing for a detailed re-probe into the case.
Enraged with Uddhav Thackeray government’s apathy towards this sensitive case, his family members appealed for public support for justice in the case a few days ago.
This resulted in prompt response from twitterati who ran a campaign with hashtag #justiceforanvaynaik on social media.
It is to be noted that when Anvay Naik committed suicide leaving behind a signed suicide note in English language, BJP-led government was ruling in the state. In his suicide note, Naik wrote that there were three companies who owed more than five crores of rupees to his company and they included Arnab Goswami of Republic TV (Rs. 83 lakh), Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia (Rs. 4 crore) and Niteish Sarda of Smartworks (Rs. 55 lakh), respectively.
In his note, Naik had said that he was committing suicide due to non-payment by the three companies.
Naik’s company built studios and done interior office designing of Republic TV office at Parel in Mumbai.
Devendra Fadanvis, then Chief Minister also held the home portfolio when Anvay Naik and his mother committee suicide.
Surprisingly, Goswami was not arrested despite his name having been clearly mentioned in the note. The case was put in cold storage by the local police and even Naik family was allegedly threatened to withdraw the case against Goswami.
Till 7 PM on Friday (August 7), more than 55,000 people tweeted with hashtag #justiceforanvaynaik, to press the high level impartial inquiry into the case.
In the last week of May, the Maharashtra government had announced a reinvestigation into the suicide by CID(Crime). But even after over two months, the CID has not initiated any investigation in this case, resulting into disappointment to the Naik’s family.
“After I heard this announcement, we went to CID office in Mumbai in June. But nobody entertained us there. Not a single officer was ready to hear our complaint. We submitted all documents which prove Arnab Goswami is responsible for my father’s suicide. But even after that no one from the CID contacted us or informed us about investigation,” Aadnya Naik, daughter of Anway Naik told India Tomorrow.
Who was Anway Naik?
Anway Naik and his mother Kumud Naik committed suicide under suspicious circumstances in May 2018 and an offence was registered by the Alibaug Police Station in Raigad.
Arnab Goswami and two others were booked by the Alibaug Police in May 2018 for allegedly abetting the suicide of 53-year-old interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother. Anway Naik was the managing director of Concorde Designs Private Limited. Anway Naik and his mother allegedly committed suicide in May 2018 in their farmhouse in Alibaug in Raigad district. In a suicide note, Anway Naik claimed Goswami and the other two persons—Feroz Shaikh and Niteish Sarda—owed him a total of Rs 5.4 crore. The Times of India had then reported Arnab Goswami had allegedly not paid Rs 83 lakh for a design project of a studio. Republic TV had then dismissed the charges as the work of vested interests and declared it had paid all dues for the design contract.
On May 5 this year, the Maharashtra unit of the Congress party tweeted a video by Akshita Naik, the wife of Anway Naik. The video appeared to have been made to mark two years of the suicide of Anvay Naik and his mother. In the 2.4-minute-long video, most of which is in Marathi, Akshita appeals for support from all Indians to get justice for her and warns “if anything happens to me and my daughter, then solely Arnab Goswami, Anil Paraskar and Suresh Warade would be responsible”. Anil Paraskar was the superintendent of police of Raigad at the time of the suicides while Suresh Warade was senior police inspector.
Akshita alleges in this video that Warade had warned her at the time of filing the FIR that “many powerful people are involved” and asked her to deliberate before filing charges. She claimed her family has not gotten laptops or phones they had given for the investigation two years ago. Akshita Naik added her family were able to get the suicide note back after much persistence.
Naik’s daughter Aadnya had written to Home Minister Anil Deshmukh complaining that the investigations were not conducted in a proper manner by the police, following which the Home Department ordered a re-probe by the CID in May.
Another video appeal by Wife
Upset with the Thackeray government response, Akshita Naik again released a new video in Marathi. “I appeal to all Marathi brothers and sisters to support our demand for investigation into Anvay Naik suicide case. As many people are supporting investigation into Sushant Singh Rajput case, I appeal all to support investigation in my husband’s death as Maharashtra government is not doing anything,” she said in the video statement.
Shiv Sena MLA demands arrest of Goswami
Taking note of the latest video appeal by Naik, Shiv Sena MLA from Thane) Pratap Sarnaik has written a letter to Home Minister Deshmukh pressing for detailed inquiry into this case. “Few years before, a builder named Suraj Parmar committed suicide naming few people. Then Fadanvis government arrested those people based on this note. Then why Goswami was not arrested based on suicide note and FIR,” Sarnaik said. He demanded immediate action against all those who are responsible for Naik suicide.
