Media in Spotlight with Arrest of The Hindu’s Mahesh Langa

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Mahesh Langa Faces Charges of Possessing Official Documents

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, October 27: The Gujarat Police registered another FIR against Mahesh Langa, The Hindu correspondent in Gandhinagar, for allegedly possessing official documents. The Gujarat Police arrested Langa this month for alleged Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) fraud.

The arrest of Langa is gaining intense curiosity. In an unusual move, the Ahmedabad police commissioner Gyanendra Singh Malik interrogated Langa, according to local media reports. Malik led the interrogation reportedly to safeguard probe against Langa after names of senior IAS and IPS officials popped up for their alleged links with the journalist.

Senior editors of The Hindu, after initial muted response, have come out strongly against the lodging of the second FIR against Langa. The Chennai-headquartered daily had largely maintained aloofness after Langa was first arrested for his alleged links to shell companies to dupe the CGST with input tax credits.

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The media bodies had come out with a joint statement to express concerns at the “procedural outreach” over the arrest of Langa. The joint statement of media bodies such as the Press Club of India had failed to get active support of most of the mainstream media.

Broadcast journalist Rajdeep Sardesai lent his voice to the editors of The Hindu, wondering: “…so now Gujarat police files another FIR against senior journalist Mahesh Langa accusing him of being in possession of ‘confidential’ government documents! At this rate, most investigative journalists who expose those in power will be behind bars! Dangerous precedent with scanty evidence yet of wrong-doing.”

The Gujarat Police filed another FIR on the complaints of the state maritime board. “Finding government documents at a journalist’s home is like finding books in a library,” Supriya Sharma of The Scroll commented on X.

Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu Suhasini Haidar quipped on X, “Getting closer to the real reason the government wanted to lock up the journalist.”

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Langa’s arrest is inviting sharp comments from editors of The Hindu and a tiny section of media professionals. They are also getting sharp responses from another section of the media fraternity.

Abhiji Iyer-Mitra, a former journalist and television commentator, tagged Sardesai to claim that Langa had been “monetising the official documents”. “Police are telling me he (Langa) is being charged with MONETISING those documents, which never made a single story on the pages of @the_hindu ……. You know journalistic ethics and all,” Iyer-Mitra asked Sardesai.

Langa’s arrest is gaining attention after the editorial heads of Newsclick were earlier arrested for allegedly taking Chinese financial support. Even columnists of the news portal were interrogated by the police.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to take the custody of Langa for money laundering. Local reports from Ahmedabad claimed that Langa had “business transactions” with senior officials.

Director of The Hindu publishing group N Ram sought attention to the journalist’s rights to “obtain and process a confidential or ‘sensitive’ official document in the line of his or her work”. He condemned the Gujarat police for lodging an FIR against Langa for possessing official documents.

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