Editor's Pick: Is Arnab Goswami's arrest political?

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami has been arrested in Mumbai a case of abetment to suicide over the death of an interior designer in 2018. Mr. Goswami resisted arrest and had a scuffle with the police. Interior designer Anvay Naik had left a suicide note that said Mr. Goswami and two others were responsible for his death as they had not paid dues totalling Rs. 5.4 core. Mr. Goswami, the note had said, owed Rs. 83 lakh. The case had been given a closure report then, but was reopened recently. The police said that after Naik's wife and daughter approached them, they had found evidence that Mr. Goswami had tried to transfer money to Mr. Naik's account after his death.

The arrest triggered a war of words between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, with the former alleging that the arrest was political. Several Union Ministers from the BJP have also condemned the arrest. Mr. Goswami has a reputation for favouring the BJP dispensation at the Centre on his TV channel, and has been critical of Shiv Sena, a former BJP ally that is now in power in Maharashtra. The BJP has said that the arrest is an attack on press freedom, while the Shiv Sena is asking why the BJP should get riled up over an arrest in a criminal case. The Congress, the Shiv Sena's ally in Maharashtra which is often at the receiving end of Mr. Goswami's particular brand of journalism, has defended the arrest.

The BJP had been in power in Maharashtra in 2018, when Naik's wife and daughter say there had been a lot of pressure on them to close the case. While the Shiv Sena claims there is no political motivation in the case, it is hard to ignore that aspect in the arrest of a journalist who has overtly favoured the rival camp. This, along with the fact that it is a serious criminal case involving a suicide and allegations of threats from one of the country's most recognisable TV personalities, is what makes this story important.