‘The Hindu’ newspaper journalist controlled company involved in GST fraud case: ED

ED says journalist Mahesh Langa controlled company involved in GST ‘fraud’ case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday claimed that ‘The Hindu’ newspaper’s Gujarat bureau journalist was “controlling” an accused company from whose premises unaccounted cash was seized by the state police recently as part of an investigation into a GST “fraud” case. The anti-money laundering probe agency said it undertook fresh searches on Sunday in this money laundering case and raided seven premises in Ahmedabad, Surat, and Bhavnagar and seized “incriminating” documents.

According to the ED, journalist Mahesh Langa was “controlling” DA Enterprises from whose premises “a large quantum of unaccounted cash” was seized by the police. It is further gathered that various other benami transactions are suspected to have happened with shell companies, it alleged. The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch that was registered on receipt of a complaint from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) against “creation of more than 200 shell entities by a group of organized criminals in order to fraudulently receive and pass-on the Input Tax Credit (ITC) at the strength of bogus invoices, without supply of any goods or services”.

The main accused company in this case is Dhruvi Enterprises. “Dhruvi Enterprises was created by certain individuals based on fake documents and obtained GST registration. Later, this entity has raised invoices in the name of 12 different entities including DA Enterprises, who availed fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) from the GST department,” said ED in a statement. The agency said inquiries were made from statutory authorities and various statements were recorded by it under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) which “could not establish the genuineness of these transactions.”

Langa’s counsel Vedanta Rajguru was earlier quoted by The Hindu saying that the journalist is neither a director nor promoter of DA Enterprise, which has also been named in the police First Information Report (FIR). In the remand application for Langa and others, police had said he was running DA Enterprise in the names of his relative and wife. The company in question is owned by Manoj Langa, a relative of Mahesh Langa, and the latter’s wife is a silent partner with no rights to undertake any transaction or access bank accounts, the newspaper had quoted his lawyer as saying.

“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, or signature in Mahesh’s name,” the lawyer had said. On Monday, media bodies like the Editors Guild of India, Press Club of India, Press Association, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Delhi Union of Journalists, and Kerala Union of Working Journalists condemned the registration of a second FIR against Langa for alleged possession of confidential documents and called for the withdrawal of charges.

They had said that journalists are often required to access sensitive documents in the course of their work, and initiating punitive action against them for doing their work is “worrisome”. The Congress party had termed the action against Langa as a “brazen assault on democratic freedoms”. ‘The Hindu’ newspaper’s former Editor N Rama condemned the police and ED actions against Mahesh Langa and said that these were all attempts to curb the freedom of the press. But another former Editor Malini Parthasarathy said that the agency’s charges are on the personal business activities of Maheah Langa and have nothing to do with his journalism work. She said none is above the law and face the actions if any illegalities are done. She Tweeted:

To cry foul when a journalist is arrested on what are evidently serious charges that require investigation & to allege that this is a case of an attack on the freedom of the press is wrong & does injustice to the essence of journalism-the pursuit of truth.
No journalist is above… https://t.co/YpUfo63hhr

— Malini Parthasarathy (@MaliniP) October 28, 2024

The ED had filed a money laundering case into this alleged GST fraud case and conducted the first round of searches on October 17 at various locations in Gujarat including at the premises of Langa. Gujarat Police filed a second case against Mahesh Langa for keeping confidential documents of Gujarat Maritime Board.

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