A photo claiming Arnab Goswami was hung upside down and kicked and beaten by the Mumbai police after his arrest, is false. BOOM found that the photo is from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh when local police personnel brutally beat up and tortured a man for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.
Arnab Goswami, owner and editor-in-chief of Republic TV was taken into custody by Maharashtra police officials on Wednesday in connection to a two-year-old alleged abetment to suicide case. The case is from 2018 when interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik were found dead in their Alibagh, Raigad house with a suicide note allgeing that they took the extreme step after Goswami failed to pay them pending dues for work done. The Raigad police which had in 2018, closed the case was asked to reopen the case in May 2019, by Home Minister Anil Deshmukh after the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena alliance formed a government in Maharashtra.
Goswami was arrested along with two others identified as Feroz Sheikh and Niteesh Sarda - also named in the suicide note left by Anvay Naik. Naik in his note detailed the money owed by each firm - Republic TV owed him Rs 83 lakh and the other two firms owed him Rs 4 crore and Rs 55 lakh respectively.
Also Read:Arnab Goswami's Arrest: What Is The Case All About?
The photo has been shared on Twitter with various texts claiming the photo shows Mumbai police torturing Goswami at the police station. Gaurav Goel, Bharatiya Janata Party leader shared the photo using the hashtag Arnab Goswami and said "If it's real.....Maharashtra Govt has asked for the dooms day."
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Goel did not delete the photo despite replies pointing out that the photo is old and does not show Goswami.
Another BJP leader Virender Babbar, from Mehrauli, Delhi also shared the same photo with the same caption as Goel.
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The photo is being shared with different texts all claiming that the man in the photo is Arnab Goswami.
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FACT CHECK
A reverse image search on the photo showed results from January 2020 when a video went viral showing Uttar Pradesh police ruthlessly torturing and thrashing a man allegedly arrested for stealing a phone. The viral photo is a screengrab from the same viral video.
According to news reports dated January 10, 2020 a video went viral showing three police personnel of the Uttar Pradesh police brutally assaulting a man inside a police station in Deoria district recently surfaced. The reports said that the incident was from Madanpur police station, in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh when a Sumit Goswami was brought into the police based on the complaint of another villager. The villager had alleged that Sumit Goswami had stolen his phone, following which Madanpur police station personnel picked him up, brought him to the police station and relentlessly beat him up.
Below is a screenshot of the story reported by News18 with the date and the police department highlighted. The story was covered by major news outlets, reports can be read here, here and here
We also found tweets by journalists who had shared the same visuals when the video went viral with details about the incident. The incident led to outrage against the police officers and a suspension order was issued against the three police personnel involved in the incident.
Video can be distressing in nature. Viewer discretion advised.
Additionally, Republic TV released a video claiming Goswami and his family was manhandled and pushed around by the police team which reached his house to arrest him.
Goswami was arrested on Wednesday by Raigad police under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Republic TV released a statement claiming deceased Anvay Naik's wife Akshata and daughter Adnya have fabricated facts and more than 90 percent of the dues owed were cleared by the channel. The chanel is also running a petition asking people to raise their voice against Goswami's arrest claiming it is trampling of free media by a state machinery.