New Delhi: As senior journalist Mahesh Langa on Wednesday (October 9) was sent to police custody for ten days in connection with tax fraud allegations, his lawyer has said there were no transactions or signatures made in his name.
Speaking to The Hindu – for whom Langa is Gujarat correspondent and senior assistant editor – Langa’s lawyer Vedanta Rajguru said his client was neither a director nor a promoter of the DA Enterprise company, which has been named in the FIR in the case.
DA Enterprise is owned by Langa’s relative Manoj, while Langa’s wife is a silent partner in it, The Hindu noted, adding that the police’s remand application claimed that Langa ran the company in Manoj’s and his wife’s names.
“The police case hinges on a statement made by Manoj Langa that he carried out the transactions on the instructions of Mahesh Langa. There is no transaction, signature in Mahesh’s name,” Rajguru was quoted as saying.
Langa, who is not named in the FIR, was arrested by Ahmedabad crime branch officials on Tuesday. The Indian Express noted in a report last updated on Wednesday that neither Manoj nor Langa’s wife had been arrested.
The paper also reported that police had sought Langa’s custody for 14 days but that a court of the metropolitan magistrate in Ahmedabad remanded him and three other accused to ten days of police custody.
It had previously reported that as per the FIR in the case, a network of 200 bogus firms worked to defraud the government of GST by using a common set of PANs.
Langa’s arrest 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.
On Thursday, the Press Club of India released a statement that was also signed by three other journalists’ organisations, noting the statements made by Langa’s lawyer and stating that his custodial interrogation amounted to “procedural overreach”.
“Even as the law should be allowed to take its own course, we feel that the custodial interrogation of Mahesh Langa is a procedural overreach and perhaps a means to harass an individual whose name doesn’t even feature in the primary FIR,” the statement read.
Press bodies — @PCITweets, @iwpcdelhi, DUJ and Press Association, express concern at arrest of Mahesh Langa (@LangaMahesh), a journalist with The Hindu in #Gujarat
Advertisement“… We feel that the custodial interrogation of Mr Langa is a procedural overreach … to harass him.” pic.twitter.com/T3IUGHNMrF
— Press Club of India (@PCITweets) October 10, 2024
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It continued: “Whereas getting to the bottom of the issue is important, we feel that due process should not be compromised and accused persons not unduly harassed under the pretext of extended custodial interrogation.”
According to The Hindu, the main accused in the case is a company named Dhruvi Enterprises, while DA Enterprise is one of the firms named in the FIR.
Deputy commissioner of police in Ahmedabad’s crime branch, Ajit Rajian, had told the Express that police recovered Rs 20 lakh in “unaccounted cash” from Langa’s home.
But Rajguru, Langa’s lawyer, told The Hindu that the cash was meant for financial exigencies and that it was not linked to the alleged tax fraud case.
Other accused in the case are Talala BJP MLA Bhagwan Barad’s son Ajay as well as his nephews Vijaykumar Kalabhai Barad and Ramesh Kalabhai Barad.
On its part, The Hindu newspaper has said that Langa’s arrest did not appear to be linked to the reports.
Editor Suresh Nambath wrote a three-part post on X saying:
“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.”
