New Delhi: A Gujarat Maritime Board clerk who was recently arrested for allegedly leaking sensitive documents to journalist Mahesh Langa, died in hospital after his health deteriorated inside the Sabarmati jail.

The death of the man, identified as Nishidh Jani, has raised serious questions about the case, which deals with corruption and GST scam allegations.

Jani, who was lodged in Sabarmati Central Prison died under mysterious circumstances when his health deteriorated late Monday (September 29) night. He was arrested two weeks back in a sensitive document leak case allegedly related to Langa and was already suffering from a lung-related ailment, reported New Indian Express.

According to Gandhinagar SP Ravi Teja Vasamsetty, jail officials had rushed Jani to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where doctors declared him dead during treatment.

Jani’s arrest was linked to the case against Langa, after documents belonging to the Gujarat Maritime Board were allegedly found in the scribe’s home.

Langa was lodged in a Gujarat jail when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also charged him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), filing a prosecution complaint (similar to a charge sheet) against him. Langa, who had been a senior assistant editor at The Hindu, has been in jail in a GST evasion case – one of three filed against him by Gujarat police – since October 9 last year.

Journalists had noted how a reporter would, thanks to the very nature of his work, need to peruse sensitive documents.

Many journalists have vouched for Langa’s integrity since his arrest. Some took note of his last story on the impact of the ban on Russian-origin diamonds on Gujarat’s diamond industry.

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