ED files charge sheet against Guj journalist

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against Gujarat-based journalist Mahesh Langa over his alleged involvement in cheating and extortion by leveraging his connections in the media, the agency said on Monday.

The agency said that the charge sheet against Langa under prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) was filed before a special court in Ahmedabad on April 17. The court has taken cognizance of the charge sheet, it added.

A money laundering probe into alleged financial irregularities was launched against Langa in October last year based on a first information report (FIR) filed by Ahmedabad police against several individuals and entities after it received a complaint from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) against an accused company, Dhruvi Enterprise, in a case of bogus claim of input tax credit under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and alleged issuance of fake invoices without supply of goods between February 1 and May 1, 2023.

A second FIR launched against the journalist by the state police pertaining to extortion was also taken up by the federal financial crimes probe agency.

Langa was arrested in February this year by ED and is currently in judicial custody.

On his role, ED said in a statement on Monday, “Investigation revealed that Prabhudan Langa is involved in cheating and extortion of money by leveraging his alleged connections in the media”.

“He threatened to tarnish the complainants’ reputations by publishing defamatory news articles unless they paid him large sums of money. This form of media manipulation was found central to his extortion activities, which caused an undue loss to the tune lakhs of rupees to various individuals,” ED said.

It added that ED has established a trail of proceeds of crime generated by Mahesh Langa. An office linked to Langa has been attached on April 9.