Gujarat journalist moves HC challenging police custody in GST case

The Hindu journalist Mahesh Langa, who was arrested this week for alleged GST fraud, has approached the Gujarat High Court challenging a magistrate’s decision to remand him to 10-day police custody, according to Bar and Bench.

Seen as an independent voice, Langa has been reporting on Gujarat for the last two decades and has reported on politics and public issues such as unemployment.

He was arrested on Monday by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch after an FIR was lodged against several individuals and entities, including a firm allegedly owned by the journalist’s cousin Manoj Kumar. It has been alleged that the company is among a network of 200 entities which tried to evade tax duties through fraudulent transactions. 

According to the Bar and Bench report, a bench of Justice Sandeep Bhatt on Friday heard the petition that was filed on Thursday. 

Langa’s lawyer Jal Unwala reportedly said, “The magistrate straight away grants 10 days remand in an offence of 420 (cheating) Indian Penal Code... The judgment of the Supreme Court says that it is not by the gravity of the offence.”

The lawyer reportedly said that the entire case revolved around nearly 220 shell companies, of which Langa has been linked to one. He said that Langa was not even named in the FIR which names his cousin as a witness. This cousin is among the partners in one of the 220 shell companies.

The state counsel replied that they were yet to receive a copy of the plea in order to make a response. The court asked the state’s counsel to get instructions by October 14, when it will next hear the matter.

According to a report in The Hindu, Langa’s counsel Vedanta Rajguru told another court on Wednesday that the journalist is neither a director nor promoter of the company, DA Enterprise, which has been named in the FIR. 

In the remand application, police said that he was running DA Enterprise in the names of his relative and wife. But Rajguru reportedly argued that the police case hinged 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 said, according to The Hindu.

In a statement on Thursday evening, the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Press Association expressed concern at Langa’s custodial interrogation.

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