Several press bodies on Monday condemned the first information report filed against The Hindu journalist Mahesh Langa for allegedly possessing confidential government documents pertaining to the Gujarat Maritime Board.
A joint statement by the Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Association, Delhi Union of Journalists and Kerala Union of Working Journalists issued through the Press Club of India demanded that the case against Langa be withdrawn and the authorities stop harassing him.
The Gujarat Police registered the first information report against Langa, who works with The Hindu in Ahmedabad, on October 22. The case was filed while the journalist was already in judicial custody in a separate case concerning an alleged Goods and Services Tax-related scam.
The police said that documents related to the Gujarat Maritime Board were recovered from Langa’s possession during his arrest in the other matter on October 7.
“It is shocking that the mere possession of documents can be used by the state to register an FIR against a citizen and in this case, a journalist of considerable standing,” the joint statement read.
Journalists are likely to possess all kinds of material, including documents from various sources, as part of their commitment to serving the public interest, the statement read.
“To implicate and incriminate media persons for the mere possession of documents is tantamount to a fundamental assault on the profession itself,” it added.
The groups also called upon the Press Council of India “to step in and perform its mandate of safeguarding the freedom of the press”. The Press Council is a statutory, adjudicating body established in 1966 that operates under the Press Council Act, 1978.
The Editors Guild of India also issued a statement on Monday saying it had noted with concern the “worrisome” action against Langa.
“Journalists are often required to access and review sensitive documents in the course of their work, and initiating punitive action against them for doing their work is worrisome,” the press body said in a statement.
The guild said it was aware of Langa’s detention in the case of the alleged Goods and Services Tax-related scam “in his personal capacity before the second FIR was filed”.
Langa was arrested on October 7 and is in judicial custody at Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Central Jail.
The editors guild said it hopes that “Langa will not be deprived of fair and speedy justice” and urged that the Gujarat Police disclose details about the second set of accusations against him.
“That the second FIR is not accessible to the public online, which since the police have reportedly put it under the ‘sensitive category’, is of grave concern,” the guild’s statement added.
On Saturday, The Hindu editor Suresh Nambath urged the Gujarat Police to drop the charges against Langa related to the alleged possession of confidential documents.
Nambath said that filing such cases against reporters undermines their journalistic work and fundamental rights.
N Ram, director of The Hindu Publishing Group, said he supported journalists’ right to obtain and process confidential or “sensitive” official documents in their line of work.
“If journalists are imprisoned or otherwise penalised for obtaining and analysing such documents, much of investigative reporting would become extinct,” he remarked.
The first case against Langa pertains to allegations 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 allegedly 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.
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