Arnab Goswami: How legal battles caught up with the star anchor of India’s Fox News

The Republic TV star has become one of India’s most famous – and controversial – news anchors. He claims his arrest this month was a political move to shut him up, as Stuti Mishra reports

Arnab Goswami sits inside a police van outside a court after he was arrested in Alibaug, Maharashtra on 4 November (REUTERS)

As he was released from jail last week, Arnab Goswami rode through the streets pumping his fists to a crowd of jubilant supporters, hanging out of an open car sun-roof while security forces tried to maintain order, chanting “Long live Mother India!”

This was not a freedom fighter escaping unjust imprisonment, or a political leader arriving at a packed rally: Goswami is a firebrand TV anchor, the founder and lead host of the right-wing, Modi-backing news channel Republic TV.

After a meteoric rise to the top of the pile of Indian TV channels characterised by their opinion-led news coverage, raucous studio debates and even louder graphics, Goswami’s arrest on 4 November in a two-year-old suicide case came as a shock to many.