The Hindu journalist Mahesh Langa has been booked in a third FIR for alleged fraud and intimidation based on a complaint from a business owner, the Ahmedabad police said in a statement after a press conference on Tuesday.
Langa had promised to get positive media coverage for the complainant’s business, the statement said. The journalist was allegedly given Rs 23 lakh to purchase a corporate office, and Rs 5,68,250 for his wife’s birthday party at a banquet hall, claimed the statement.
Langa refused to repay the sum and instead threatened the business owner that he could “damage his business through negative media coverage, citing his political influence and media connections”, the statement claimed. “He has submitted detailed financial documentation and witness statements to support his claim, urging a thorough investigation into the matter and appropriate restitution.”
Langa, who has been in judicial custody since October 8 for alleged GST fraud, was booked in another case on October 22. It was lodged at the Sector 7 police station in Gandhinagar for possession of confidential documents linked to the Gujarat Maritime Board.
The Ahmedabad police press conference came a day after five press bodies had condemned the second FIR.
EGI Statement on the FIR against journalist Mahesh Langa for possession of confidential documents pic.twitter.com/VrrdDErL2M
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) October 28, 2024
The Press Club of India, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Delhi Union of Journalists and Kerala Union of Working Journalists demanded that the Press Council of India must “perform its mandate of safeguarding the freedom of the press”. The Editors Guild of India said the second FIR for possessing “confidential” documents is “worrisome” as journalists are often required to review sensitive documents in the course of their work.
Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh had claimed the charges against Langa were a bid to “divert attention from the scandalous manner” in which the Gujarat Maritime Board has been “forced to bestow special favours” to the Adani Group at “a huge cost to the public exchequer”.
Last week, The Hindu’s former editor-in-chief N Ram condemned the police action, appealed for support for a “journalist’s right” to obtain confidential documents, and said that “if journalists are imprisoned or otherwise penalised for obtaining and analysing such documents, much of investigative reporting would become extinct!”
A senior journalist at The Hindu, Suresh Nambath, wrote on X that he was deeply concerned. “We would like to reiterate that journalists are required to process documents, including those of a confidential nature, in the line of their work. They are guided by the larger public interest in perusing documents that are official or confidential.”
The Ahmedabad police statement on Tuesday said that the Gandhinagar police are investigating the matter related to GMB and “it appears that the FIR is kept sensitive due to national security concerns as the matter pertains to ports”.
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