'State Machinery Meant To Protect Him Turned Into Worst Tormentor': Arnab Goswami Files Complaint Before NHRC Against Alleged Abuse Of Republic TV's Asst VP By Mumbai Police

Goswami has alleged that first, Ghanshyam was arrested without any basis inasmuch as the FIR in the TRP case did not name him and subsequently, he was given open threats of physical harm if he did not incriminate himself or his organization, i.e. ARG Outlier Pvt Limited.

"He was beaten, he was tortured mentally and physically and the state machinery meant to protect him turned into his worst tormentor.

The Police Officer handling the interrogation apart from assaulting Ghanshyam, did everything to try and intimidate him into implicating himself and his organisation without any valid basis. In the garb of an investigation, a cruel plot to physically and mentally torture a citizen of India played out within the walls of custody," Goswami wrote.

It is also alleged that when Ghanshyam refused to comply to the pre-medicated script of the officers, he was subjected to custodial violence and was "brutally and barbarically whipped with a chakki belt".

In his letter, Goswmai wrote,

"He (Ghanshyam) was put through systematic physical torutre that is against all principles of human rights and a murderous blow to due process.

Even as he cried and writhed in pain while the police officer was lashing him, they did not stop and kept the agony and assault going. All officers present were witness to his assault in custody and were partakers and bystanders to the crime, as directed to be committed by the senior police officer present."

Goswami alleged that one of the Police Officers tried to intimidate Ghanshyam by implying to use "other means" to obtain a favourable statement. This fully establishes the criminal and mala-fide intent of the crime branch, he said.

"The very fact that the room of torture was prepared prior with the torture tool conclusively establishes the premeditated nature of the crime that was plotted by all the crime branch officers involved in the investigation. As importantly, the very fact that a senior police officer personally gave instructions for the physical torture establishes that the sanction for the human rights abuse was given by the senior officers of the crime branch," the letter states.

Goswami added,

"Despite narrating true facts repeatedly, the officers of the Crime Branch on multiple occasions didn't even allow Ghanshyam to read his own statements and made him forcefully sign them. This reveals a horrendous overreach by the Mumbai Police and a complete trampling of due process in custody. This was an utter abuse of power by the police officers, and patently unconstitutional."

He further wrote that a man, whose name did not even appear in the FIR, was paraded like a terrorist with his face covered in a black cloth as he was taken to court.

"Ghanshyam's personal dignity was shred to smithereens," Goswami wrote while urging the Commission to urgently intervene in the matter.

"We turn to the NHRC to protect the human rights of Ghanshyam Singh who has been tortured, tormented and made to undergo gross mental and physical assault in the custody of the Mumbai Police. The NHRC should protect news agencies whose members have been physically tortured in custody," the letter read.

On October 8, the Mumbai Police Commissioner, Param Bir Singh, claimed to have busted a racket that involved private television channels manipulating their Television Rating Points, or TRP.

Ghanshyam Singh was arrested on 10^th November in connection with TRP Scam Case, for alleged manipulation of ratings to show the news channel and its programmes as the most watched. He was released on bail by a City Civil and Sessions Court, Greater Bombay, on December 5, 2020.

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