Mumbai: Arnab Goswami alleges assault, official says CCTV will bring out truth

MUMBAI: Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami, who was taken from a quarantine-centre-cum-jail in Alibaug to Taloja prison in a surprise move on Sunday morning, alleged that he had been assaulted during the shifting.
As he was being escorted to Taloja prison around 9.30am, Goswami shouted out from inside the moving police van that he had been assaulted by the Alibaug jailer while being forced to go to Taloja.

“My life is in danger, please tell the courts to help me,” he said. “When I wanted to speak to my lawyer, I was assaulted in jail by the jailer.”

Alibaug prison superintendent Abasaheb Patil refuted the allegations of assault at the quarantine centre that was being run out of a municipal school to rule out Covid-19 among detainees.
“CCTV camera surveillance at the quarantine centre will lay bare the lies of accused Goswami’s allegations of assault on him,” Patil said.

Inspector Jamil Shaikh of the Raigad crime branch, who is the investigating officer in the case, said Goswami was shifted as he had been found using a mobile phone in judicial custody and had been active on social media. He said that as they feared Goswami would again get access to a mobile phone if lodged in Alibaug prison, they sought permission from higher authorities to shift him to Taloja.
“As the investigating officer of the case, I wrote to the Alibaug jail superintendent seeking an inquiry report as to how the accused, Goswami, got access to a mobile for use in the quarantine centre under Alibaug jail authorities,” Shaikh said. “Subsequently, we submitted a letter to the Alibaug jail superintendent on Saturday and shifted the accused Goswami on Sunday morning.”
A source at Alibaug jail said because of the Covid-19 pandemic, visitors were not allowed to meet the accused lodged at the quarantine centre and that was why detainees were provided a mobile phone to talk to their relatives.
Under jail rules, an accused is permitted to talk to his lawyer or family member from a phone provided by jail administration.
In the case of Goswami, it was found that he used a cell phone but was live on Facebook for two hours, said a senior IPS official.
Whenever a mobile phone is provided to an accused in judicial custody, the name of the on-duty jail staff, the date and time are recorded in the daily register. “We are looking for the link, we have called for a report from jail administration,” the official told TOI.