Two years after interior designer Anvay Naik ended his life in Alibag and left a note alleging that editor-in-chief of Republic TV Arnab Goswami, Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia and Neetish Sarda of Smartworks owed him ₹5.40 crore for his work, his family said on Wednesday that Mr. Goswami refused to pay ₹83 lakh to him and threatened his family.
Naiks’s daughter, Adnya, along with her mother, held a press conference, where they thanked the authorities and the Maharashtra government for ‘finally’ registering a case against all the three accused.
Ms. Naik alleged, “Arnab used to tell my father that he will not pay the money and that he will ruin his and my careers. He used to threaten my father but no investigation took place against him. Why is he given such a privilege as an accused. We had met Sanjay Barve [former Commissioner of Police] and the SP of Raigad several times but it led to nothing. I don’t know what political connections he had that the case was closed then.”
She went on to say, “We kept requesting Arnab to please meet us for at least 5 minutes but he always ignored me and my family. We were getting threat calls and we had submitted a NC [non-cognizable] complaint in the Murbad and Dadar police stations. Threat calls were made and we were followed also. We begged that we should be paid our legitimate dues but were denied. We were pressured but now all we want is justice.”
The trio are expected to be produced before the chief magistrate court in Alibag later in the day.
The suicide note mentioned that along with Mr Goswami, Mr. Shaikh owed Naik ₹4 crore for his project at Andheri and Mr. Sarda is alleged to have not paid ₹55 lakh for his projects at Magarpatta and Baner. After the suicide, an FIR was registered by Ms. Naik under sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
