A sad incident of Arnab’s arrest but no sympathy for RepublicTV and Arnab Goswami

 

     In a very condemnable incident Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-chief of Republic TV has been arrested from his house in the early morning hours. In a case that is 2 years old and already closed.

            First question that arises is that is our criminal justice system so ineffective that any criminal can get away after committing the crime. Now the case is opened due to vendetta that means if he is actually a culprit, he was allowed to get away with it after committing the crime. If he is the culprit why he was not arrested yet and why the case was closed.

Second and most important question is why now and how he was arrested. In current circumstances it is an undisputed fact that there is spat going on between Arnab Goswami and Maharashtra government and Mumbai Police commissioner. It is the clear result of that spat. Does that mean any Indian citizen can be arrested or not arrested based on discretion of police. Even if he has committed a crime he can be let go and even if he hasn’t committed a crime he can be arrested. Why authorities were sleeping all along and now when there is a spat he is arrested.

His reporting may be flawed, may not be approved by a lot of people including me. But the main questions are:

 Is he a criminal?

 Has he committed any crime?

 Does he deserve to be arrested?

 

Answer to all these questions in big NO. He is an Indian citizen doing his job although not with good standards but he is not a criminal. It is regrettable that he has been arrested without any grounds and by breaking all CrPC laws.

 

The BIGGEST question that comes is how in a democratic country like India it became possible that a citizen can be arrested when there is no ground and legally it should not have been possible to arrest him.

Answer to this question is THERE IS NOTHING NEW IN THIS. He is just one of the lakhs of such cases that Indian citizens face on a daily basis.

Only difference is that for the first time LEGAL TERRORISM is live streamed.

Figures speak for it and official crime data can elaborate the current grim situation of democratic and assumed to be constitutionally protected India.  

 

Official NCRB DATA for the last four years, representing total number of convicts  in jails all across India and total number of citizens arrested( without conviction) in a year by police under various criminal provisions.

Year	Convicts in Jail	Reported arrests (Without conviction)
2016	1,35,683	61,30,507
2017	1,39,149	59,58,040
2018	1,39,488	55,08,201
2019	1,44,125	52,13,404

 

There can be two conclusions that can be drawn out of this. Either all those arrested committed the crime but never got convicted or another conclusion is they never committed the crime but still got arrested.

 In both cases it’s the failure of the criminal justice system either convicts are roaming freely out in the open or innocent are facing arrest without committing any crime. The first conclusion may be true to some extent may be 1-2 lakh cases but still  there are around 60 Lakh arrests in a year and if cumulative figures of 10 years is taken its 6 Crore innocent Indian citizens that have been falsely arrested in the last 10 years.  

These figures clearly show that although on an average around 1 lakh convicts are there in all the jails, a total of around 50-60 lakh innocent citizens are getting arrested every year. That means daily around 15,000 innocent Indian citizens face the same fate of legal terrorism that was live streamed today. All this cannot be attributed only to government vendetta. There is clear misuse of the criminal justice system to settle personal vendettas by utilizing legal authorities.

What happened to Arnab Goswami is regrettable but he doesn’t deserve sympathy either. This is what all the media houses including Arnab Goswami have been promoting all over the years. To Arrest any innocent Indian citizen on just a false complaint / FIR with ulterior motives whether it pertains to false molestation charges, rape, sexual harassment, dowry, atrocities laws or any other criminal provisions. All reporters have always been behind the blood of the accused even before he is proven to be guilty.  

The result is that criminal justice system has become a way of terrorism, a legal terrorism used to satisfy personal grudges, personal vendetta and more importantly for extortion. Where arrest is used for extortion of money, any forced favour, to silence the voice or to create any kind of pressure.

There is some more startling data that can further show the gravity of problem:

Year	Kidnapping for Ransom ( Sec. 364A IPC)	Reported Arrests( Without conviction)
2016	660	61,30,507
2017	616	59,58,040
2018	593	55,08,201
2019	580	52,13,404

 

 This data clearly shows that a normal innocent Indian citizen is 10,000 times more likely to be arrested (without committing any crime) for the purpose of extortion rather than getting kidnapped for ransom. A regular Indian citizen is no longer afraid to be abducted for ransom or afraid from criminals but is afraid of legal authorities and afraid to be arrested by police without committing any crime.

 

Let’s see in detail how this business of legal extortion works

It would be more appropriate to use the term “innocent Indian citizen” rather than Arnab Goswami as what happened to him is not about him but it is about what 15000 innocent Indian citizens face on a daily basis.

So an innocent Indian citizen is arrested in the morning at 5.00 AM and taken to a police station. He is presented before the court and court observes:

1)    There is no justifiable ground to ask for police custody

2)    There is no chain showing nexus between the suicide and role of Indian citizen.

3)    The closed case was re-opened by police without consent from court.

And still the innocent Indian citizen is thrown into the jail and there is no action against the people involved in illegal arrest/ abduction. That means any innocent Indian citizen can be thrown into jail without committing any crime and without any evidence against him. Article 21 of Indian constitution provides fundamental right of Life and liberty to every Indian citizen. No one can be detained without following due process of law.  So are we really living under the Constitution, where any citizen’s liberty can be taken away by legal authorities without any legal ground?

In parallel to that illegal arrest, a fresh FIR has been registered by a woman police official against that innocent Indian citizen, his wife, his son and two others for assault of woman public servant, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation and damage to public property. This is not the story of one person but the story of 15,000 innocent Indian citizens on a daily basis.

This raises the questions:

 

Is the abduction by a person wearing the colour of legal authorities legal?

Does Indian citizen have the right to safeguard themselves from such abduction?

Is it a crime to resist such abduction?

 

Now this is how the spiral of extortion works. He will get free from those old cases but now there are new cases constructed with new evidences and new stories. While to start with there was no case, no evidence and no reason to arrest, now new cases started on which he can be again arrested, harassed and may even be convicted, as a woman as a victim been generated and it is very easy in India to convict any man on a false statement of a woman.

   What that means is unless he submits to the extortion demands of legal authorities he will have to face harassment. And using these new false cases the innocent Indian citizen will be forced to submit to the demands.

 

Whereas there are annually around 600 reported cases of ransom there are 60 Lakh cases of extortion under the nose of legal authorities using legal authorities. An innocent Indian citizen is not afraid of conviction but submit to this extortion due to threat of arrest and harassment by legal authorities.

Can we safely say that we have an illegal legal system?

 

On the other hand two Indian citizens committed suicide. Their relatives were forced to take the complaint back and without proper investigation the case was closed. Only reason the case is reopened now is because of personal interest of certain authorities otherwise this case also would have been buried without proper investigation like lakhs of other cases that get buried without justice.

So where does justice lie for Indian citizens. On being a victim of crime there is no proper investigation, while there are 60 Lakh innocent Indian citizens getting arrested every year without committing any crime.

 

This raises the question: Is our criminal justice system delivering the JUSTICE or delivering the CRIME?