Two motorcycle-borne persons allegedly attacked journalist Arnab Goswami’s car in Mumbai and tried to break its glass window when he and his wife were on their way home in the early hours of Thursday, police said. Both the attackers have been arrested, he said.
The incident took place on Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, when Goswami was returning from a studio located in Bombay Dyeing Complex in Lower Parel, a police official said. The attackers overtook Goswami’s car, stopped it and one of them allegedly tried to break the vehicle’s glass window by repeatedly hitting it with his hands, the official said.
The attackers were carrying a bottle of ink which they threw on his car, the official said. Goswami’s security guards, who were behind in another car, caught hold of the two persons and handed them over to the N M Joshi Marg Police, he added. In a video posted after the alleged attack, Goswami said he was told by his security guards that the attackers were Youth Congress workers. There was no confirmation of the same by either police or the youth outfit. Goswami has faced flak over his remarks aimed at Sonia Gandhi during a discussion on Palghar incident in which three persons, including two sadhus, were lynched. Senior Congress leaders, including chief ministers, slammed Goswami, the editor-in-chief and owner of Republic TV, with the party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleging that it was “deeply disgraceful that PM & BJP eulogize this brand of TV anchors”.
Maharashtra energy minister Dr Nitin Raut on Thursday denied any role of the Congress party in the attack on Republic TV editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami. He added that the latter has tried to insult Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi by using indecent language. “I don’t think that any Congress worker can attack him because Congress has never worked in this manner. The party that has been created by the father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi has maintained both moderation and balance since the beginning,” said Raut.