TheMaharashtra Congress on Friday held protests in all the districts and differentcities demanding the arrest of Republic TV Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami for"treason" under the Official Secrets Act, 1923, party leaders saidhere.
Atvarious places in the state, a large number of Congress activists protested byhurling stones and shoes at photos of Goswami, garlanding his portraits withchappals, and raising slogans against him and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ledby state Congress President and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, severalministers, legislators, state and district party leaders joined the agitationsacross all the 36 districts of Maharashtra.
Thosewhotook part in the protests included Dheeraj Deshmukh, Praniti Shinde, SureshWarpudkar, Sulabha Khodke, Vikas Thakre, Hishab Usmani, Sharad Aher, PrahladChavan, Prakash Deotale, Vijay Bhosale, Sandeep Patil and Shyam Saner, amongothers.
Last week, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had said that the state government will seek legal opinion to examine how it could proceed against the Republic TV chief in the matter which concerned critical aspects of national security.
Termingthe recent revelations of WhatsApp chats between Goswami and ex-BARC CEO ParthoDasgupta as "extremely serious and violative of the OSA, 1923",Thorat said these conversations amount to 'treason' for which the Republic TVchief must be immediately arrested.
Hesaid that the chats between the two had made some serious revelations relatedto national security and pertaining to the retaliatory surgical strike by Indiain Balakot, Pakistan,in February 2019.
"Howdid Goswami get the information on the air strikes of February 2019, three daysbefore the action was undertaken? Who is the 'Big Name' in the government thathe refers to? With whom did Goswami share such sensitive information that isviolative of the OSA, 1923," Thorat asked.
TheCongress leader also pointed out that the WhatsApp chats indicate the closeties Goswami enjoys with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shahand other ministers in the BJP-led Central government, besides high-rankingofficials who helped him by flouting rules, and the Pulwama attack pointed tothe vested interests of some big functionaries.
Claimingthat Goswami is not 'the only culprit', Thorat said that many Central ministershave violated their oath to help the Republic TV chief earn commercial gains,and action must be taken against all those who were party to the entireepisode.