New Delhi: The Ahmedabad Crime Branch’s arrest on October 8 of senior journalist Mahesh Langa in connection with an alleged Goods and Services Tax scam has raised questions.
Langa, currently a senior assistant editor at The Hindu, has been reporting on issues relevant to Gujarat for the past two decades.
Newslaundry has reported that a first information report was registered on October 7. According to the Director General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) to the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, raids were conducted at 14 places in Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Surat, Kheda and Bhavnagar.
According to Indian Express, 13 firms and their proprietors were booked for alleged input tax credit fraud, based on a complaint filed by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence. The FIR alleges that a network of 200 bogus firms are working to defraud the government of GST by using a common set of PAN numbers.
Among the 13 firms is an enterprise allegedly owned by the journalist’s brother Langa Manojkumar Rambhai. Curiously, Manojkumar Rambhai has not been arrested.
The police, according to the Newslaundry report, invoked charges under various sections pertinent to fraud, forgery, possession of forged documents, and criminal conspiracy of the now defunct Indian Penal Code.
Notably, Langa is not named in the FIR. His connections with his brother’s firm are also unestablished.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Ajit Rajian claimed to Express that police have recovered “Rs 20 lakh unaccounted cash, some gold and several land documents from him.”
Rajian told Newslaundry that documents with the name of Langa’s wife Kavita were also found, “but she has not been named in the FIR as the probe has verified that she had nothing to do with the entity’s operations.” Kavita has not been arrested either.
Express reported that among accused in the case are Talala BJP MLA Bhagwan Barad’s son Ajay, and his nephews Vijaykumar Kalabhai Barad and Ramesh Kalabhai Barad.
Langa’s arrest has generated misgivings in the media community, with many journalists vouching for his integrity and others taking note of a recent story he did on the impact of the ban on Russian-origin diamonds on Gujarat’s diamond industry.
Less than a week ago @LangaMahesh did a hard hitting report on the impact of the ban on Russian origin diamonds on Gujarat’s diamond industry and asked some sharp questions. Now he is arrested. 🤷🏻♀️ https://t.co/niU2xtOc0d pic.twitter.com/U8ZzmR8XaB
— Smita Sharma (@Smita_Sharma) October 8, 2024
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I have known @LangaMahesh @the_hindu, senior asstt editor based at Ahemdabad an extremely professional journalist . He has been arrested for his involvement in multi crores GST scam. Journalists and persons known to him will not believe in their dreams about his involvement in…
— Pravesh Jain (@PRAVESHPARAS) October 9, 2024
On its part, The Hindu newspaper has said that the arrest does not appear to be linked to the reports.
The Hindu’s editor Suresh Nambath wrote a three-part post on X:
“One of our journalists, Mahesh Langa, has been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Ahmedabad City Police on a complaint registered by the Central GST.
“While we have no details about the merits of the case, we are given to understand that this is not related to his reports published in The Hindu.
“We would like to state at this time that we appreciate his professional work for The Hindu as the Gujarat correspondent based in Ahmedabad. We do hope that no journalist anywhere is targeted for their work, and we expect the investigation to be conducted fairly and quickly.”
