The Hunt For Arnab Goswami

Arnab Goswami, can you hear the screaming yet? We all probably know who that is ever since the Sushant Singh Rajput case began. The news reporter who openly challenges people on his channel. The news reporter who screams at the camera thinking that it would make a difference. Arnab Goswami came into the limelight ever since people started to believe that Sushant Singh Rajput might have been murdered. All the news channels were flooded with the news of Sushant’s suicide on the 14th of June. Arnab was extremely active in the case ever since. If there’s anything that competes with the tragedy of Sushant’s death, it is the media coverage that has followed since. 

Arnab The Savior

When the news first broke, we saw reporters rush to the Sushant’s home in Bihar, barge their way in and record the family in their most private moments of grief. From the 20th of July onward, Arnab Goswami put the focus on Sushant’s case. At first he assisted with getting a CBI inquiry for Sushant’s case. Although, once that was completed and the CBI inquiry was granted, Arnab continued to make his own claims whether it was blaming the murder on nepotism or on the usage of drugs in Bollywood. 

At first people followed him because of his active role in wanting justice for Sushant. But after the CBI took over, he still continued to go on about the case with his unreliable assumptions. He began to give derogatory and defamatory remarks against the Bollywood actors. He began damaging their images without proof or without waiting for a result from the CBI. Aren’t news channels supposed to be informative, telling us about what is happening in our country and around the world. What is the point of it if they don’t inform us about what is happening in our country? If it wasn’t for social media, we wouldn’t know about any other important events taking place in India. 

Well, Arnab instead focused on increasing his TRP and the only way to do that was to ramble on about the CBI inquiry and defame Bollywood. Love him or hate him, he got what he worked for. But, no sane viewer can hold Republic TV or Arnab to standards of objective journalism. 

Fake TRP? 

There is another controversy with Arnab and his news channel, Republic TV. It was alleged that the Television Rating Points were being manipulated. The Mumbai Police has alleged that Republic TV and two other television channels, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema, were gaming TRPs to boost their advertising revenue. The police have already arrested four people in the case, including the two owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema. Republic TV has claimed that the Mumbai Police’s investigation of the Sushant Singh Rajput case is under a cloud, and the police is levelling allegations against it as a “desperate measure” because of its reportage on the Palghar lynching case, the Rajput case and many others.

The Mumbai Police also issued a show cause notice to Arnab Goswami, asking him why he should not be made to sign a bond of good behavior. He has been asked to present himself before the police soon. The notice is in reference to two FIRs registered against Goswami earlier this year for allegedly showing content on his channel that could cause enmity between different communities. 

Arnab Vs Bollywood

After a slew of coverage about an alleged “Bollywood drugs mafia” in the aftermath of the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, 38 Bollywood producers have filed suit against Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari and Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar for “conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right of privacy of persons associated with Bollywood”. The media scrutiny of Bollywood and the Hindi film industry has been ongoing ever since the case of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death came into the public domain. The NCB has so far interrogated actors like Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor among others. The media trial of Rhea Chakraborty has also dragged the film industry into its coverage. They stayed quiet for quite some time but these news channels continued to tarnish their images and there’s only so much someone can handle. 

The lawsuit includes several big shots from the industry. Here is the full list of Plaintiffs:

• The Producers Guild of India
• The Cine & TV Artiste Association
• The Film and TV Producers Council
• Screenwriters Association
• Aamir Khan Productions
• Ad-Labs Films
• Ajay Devgn Flims
• Andolan Films
• Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network
• Arbaaz Khan Productions
• Ashutosh Gowariker Productions
• BSK Network and Entertainment
• Cape of Good Films
• Clean Slate Filmz
• Dharma Productions
• Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures
• Excel Entertainment
• Filmkraft Productions
• Hope Production
• Kabir Khan Films
• Luv Films
• Macguffin Pictures
• Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
• One India Stories
• R.S. Entertainment
• Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures
• Red Chillies Entertainment
• Reliance Big Entertainment
• Reel Life Productions
• Rohit Shetty Pictures
• Roy Kapur Productions
• Salman Khan Ventures
• Sohail Khan Productions
• Sikhya Entertainment
• Tiger Baby Digital
• Vinod Chopra Films
• Vishal Bhardwaj Film
• YashRaj Films

What Happens Next? 

This is the beginning of what the police termed as “chapter proceedings” against Arnab. It is usually reserved for those creating nuisance in a particular area and give indications that they could turn into repeat offenders. While a notice under Section 107 (security for keeping the peace in other cases) of the CrPC is issued for such proceedings, Arnab has been sent a notice under Section 108, which pertains to security of good behavior from persons disseminating seditious matters. If the ACP Sudhir Jambavdekar – in whose jurisdiction Arnab lives in Mumbai – is not convinced by the reasons given by the anchor, he will be asked to sign a bond of good behavior. If Arnab violates the conditions of the bond during a period of one year, he will have to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh and can also be sent behind bars. 

Following the TRP scam, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) announced a temporary suspension of weekly ratings of news channels. 

That’s what happens when you make decisions on behalf of the CBI and publicly challenge big shots on your channel.

Wrapping Up

Seems like Arnab is in a lot of trouble. Which side are you on? Republic or Bollywood? Let us know down below.

Read more on the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

Find out why CBI was important for the SSR case.