Another FIR filed against journalist Mahesh Langa for possessing confidential documents

The on Tuesday registered another first information report against journalist Mahesh Langa for allegedly possessing confidential government documents, The Indian Express reported.

Langa, who works with The Hindu in Ahmedabad, was booked on charges of possessing confidential documents related to the Gujarat Maritime Board, Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Ravi Teja Vasamsetty said.

The journalist is already in judicial custody in an alleged Goods and Services Tax-related scam. The police have alleged that a company named Dhruvi Enterprise created six firms from a single Permanent Account Number to fraudulently receive input tax credit.

One of the companies named in the first information report, DA Enterprise, is owned by Mahesh Langa’s cousin Manoj Langa. The journalist’s wife is a silent partner in the firm with no rights to conduct transactions or access bank accounts.

Manoj Langa, however, has claimed that he was instructed by Mahesh Langa to carry out fraudulent transactions.

The journalist’s counsel told an Ahmedabad court earlier this month that his client was neither a director nor a promoter of the company, and that the police had not found any transactions directly tying him to the alleged scam.

Mahesh Langa and three others were after the Crime Branch, Economic Offences Wing and Special Operations Group of the Gujarat Police raided 14 locations in the...