Gujarat: ED arrests Mahesh Langa of The Hindu in cash laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested a Gujarat-based journalist in a cash laundering investigation linked to an alleged monetary fraud, officers stated.

Mahesh Langa, a correspondent for the Hindu in Gujarat, was taken into custody and produced earlier than a particular Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA) Court docket in Ahmedabad, they stated. The courtroom despatched Langa to ED custody till 28 February, the officers stated.

This isn’t, nevertheless, Langa’s first brush with the case. On 19 September 2024, the senior journalist with the Hindu reported that the BJP’s membership drive in Gujarat was rife with fraudulent enrolments.

Within the first week of October 2024 itself, Langa was detained for an alleged GST rip-off, although he stated he had nothing to do with the agency by which his spouse was a silent accomplice. In that occasion, he was remanded to police custody for 10 days.

The Ahmedabad-based Langa is understood for his unsparing criticism of the state’s ruling BJP, and his exposé printed earlier than his 2024 detention revealed that the social gathering was ‘enrolling’ members with out their consent or data.