MUMBAI: A fresh FIR against Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami has been registered on Saturday for allegedly creating communal hatred.
According to several media reports, the FIR was lodged at Mumbai’s Pydhonie police station based on a complaint of Irfan Abubakar Shaikh , the secretary of an educational society
In the FIR, Irfan Shaikh referred to a report aired on the channel on April 29, and accused Goswami of hurting religious sentiments of a community and targeted a mosque from Bandra which had no link to the commotion that took place on April 14.
“The channel had telecasted the protest of migrants that had gathered near Bandra railway station on April 14, during which he had raised a question as to why are mob gathering only near mosques during lockdown,” said the complainant in his statement to police.
“The complainant said Mr. Goswami had made repeated references to Jama Masjid near the spot where the migrants had gathered, despite the fact that the mosque had nothing to do with the incident. He had also made statements like ‘lockdown mein har bheed masjid ke paas hi kyon jutati hai (why does every crowd in the lockdown always gather near a mosque)?’ and this tried to give a religious colour to the incident,” a media report quoted an officer with the Pydhonie police.
The police have registered a case under sections 153, 153 A, 295 A, 500, 505 (2), 511 and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code. and further investigation is going on.