The apex court restrains the journalist from writing any articles related to the allegations against him
NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim bail to Mahesh Langa, a journalist from The Hindu newspaper. Langa was arrested in October last year in connection with a money laundering case.
Granting bail to Langa, the bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi restrained him from writing any articles related to the allegations against him.
Langa has been in Sabarmati jail for over 14 months.
The Supreme Court also directed a special court to conduct trial on a day-to-day basis to record the statements of the nine remaining witnesses. Langa has been ordered to extend full cooperation with the proceedings and seek no adjournment on the ground that his petition seeking the case be quashed is pending. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been directed to file a status report on compliance with these directions. The bench listed the matter to be heard for further consideration on January 6.
Langa’s arrested by the Gujarat Police involves allegations of Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud. He was subsequently booked in multiple cases. The ED later registered a case against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Langa.
Opposing the bail plea, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta alleged that Langa had extorted money, claiming that threats were made to publish adverse material if payments were not made. “A journalist is found to be extorting money… We want to file an additional counter,” Mehta told the court.
Sibal objected to the move, stating that the ED was seeking to change its stand. He argued that allegations of “Rs 68-crore fraud” were exaggerated, asserting that “it is not even Rs 68 lakh.” Sibal further pointed out that no charge sheet had been filed in the predicate offence forming the basis of the PMLA case.
“I have been in custody since October 2024. For what offence? It is not murder,” he submitted, calling allegations of influencing witnesses “shocking”.
Sibal also alleged that crucial documents had not been furnished to the defence, stating that there was no supplementary complaint and that the prosecution could not “have it both ways”.
The Gujarat High Court had denied bail to Langa following which he had approached the Supreme Court.
