Journalist Mahesh Langa controlled company involved in GST 'fraud' case: ED

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday claimed a Gujarat-based 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 federal 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 organised 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," the ED claimed.

The agency said enquiries 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 works for The Hindu newspaper as its Gujarat correspondent.

His 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, 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 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 of Gujarat including at the premises of Langa.