‘Politically motivated’: Held in GST case, journalist moves HC against remand order
The journalist who was Tuesday arrested amid a probe in a Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) fraud case and was remanded to police custody by a magistrate court, moved the Gujarat High Court on Friday challenging the order while terming it “politically motivated”.
Mahesh Langa, the Gujarat correspondent and senior assistant editor at The Hindu, was arrested after 13 firms and their proprietors were booked for an alleged input tax credit (ITC) fraud, based on a complaint filed by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI).
Langa, in his plea, sought to quash the remand order passed by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate on Wednesday. The court granted 10 days’ remand to the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB).
The petition, filed on Thursday, was taken up for hearing on Friday before the court of Justice Sandeep Bhatt.The court asked the petitioner’s advocate to serve a copy of the plea to the public prosecutor’s office and deferred the matter for hearing on October 14. The court also asked the assistant public prosecutor to get instructions from the state government by that date.
