Arnab Goswami shifted to Taloja jail for using mobile phone in custody
Mumbai: Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, arrested in connection with the suicide of an interior designer, was on Sunday shifted to Taloja jail in Maharashtra's Raigad district from a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Alibaug, a police official said.
Goswami was moved to the Taloja jail after he was allegedly found using a mobile phone while in judicial custody at a local school designated as COVID-19 centre for Alibaug prison in Raigad district, he said.
The Raigad crime branch found Goswami was active on social media using somebody's mobile phone, despite his personal mobile phone having been seized by police when he was taken into custody on November 4, the official said.
While being escorted to Taloja jail, Goswami shouted from the police van, alleging that he was assaulted by Alibaug jailer on Saturday evening, his life was in danger and he was not allowed to speak to his lawyer.
Meanwhile, former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya in a tweet said he met jailer of the Taloja prison on Sunday and the latter assured him that Goswami will not be harassed and he will also be provided required medical treatment.
Goswami and two others - Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda - were arrested by Alibaug police on November 4 in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused.
After his arrest from his Lower Parel residence in Mumbai, Goswami was taken to Alibaug, where the Chief Judicial Magistrate remanded him and the two others in judicial custody till November 18.
Goswami was then kept at a local school which has been designated as a COVID-19 centre for the Alibaug prison.
The Bombay High Court will on Monday pronounce its order on the interim bail application filed by Goswami and the two others in connection with the abetment of suicide case.
A notice issued late Saturday night on the high court's website said the bench would assemble at 3 pm on November 9 for pronouncement of the order.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
