‘Centre should take note of Arnab’s purported chats’

Mumbai, Jan 19: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday said the Centre should take note of the purported chats between Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and ex-Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) head Partho Dasgupta in connection with the Balakot air strike.
The matter is “serious” as it relates to the national security, Deshmukh told reporters here, and later, in a tweet, said the state government will also take legal advice on this matter as “it is evident that they were privy to the plan related to national security”.
The purported chats widely reported in media mentioned that Goswami was privy to the 2019 air strike, when the Indian Air Force (IAF) hit the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26 that year.
Deshmukh’s remarks came after a Maharashtra Congress delegation led by state party spokesperson Sachin Sawant met him here, seeking a probe into the matter and registration of a case if necessary, for allegedly “leaking sensitive and classified information” about national security. Sawant also demanded Goswami’s immediate arrest in this connection. (PTI)