Messi visit SIT probe: police launch searches at five locations

The police are conducting search operations at five locations, including the head office of the Reporting Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) at Kalamassery in Ernakulam district, Keralam, as part of the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) probe into alleged financial misappropriation and tax evasion linked to a failed attempt to bring the Argentina national team and its legendary former captain Lionel Messi for an international friendly match in Kochi during the previous LDF government’s tenure.

The residences of RBC managing director Anto Augustine, along with those of his brothers and co-owners Roji Augustine and Jose Kutty Augustine, as well as the house of administrative head Shah Feena Mehar Ali, are also being searched.

A police team led by Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner of Police C.K. Bijoy Chandran began the search at the RBC headquarters, which also houses the company’s news channel Reporter TV, around 6 a.m. The team entered the newsroom and seized journalists’ mobile phones amid strong protests.

Reporter TV’s office at Kalamassery in Kochi
| Photo Credit:
H.Vibhu

Court-issued search warrant

Mr. Chandran told reporters that the operation was being carried out under a court-issued search warrant. “Our attempt to serve notice to the RBC administrative authorities to search the administrative office failed as they refused to accept it. A woman in charge of the administrative section promised to arrive shortly but has since not responded to our calls. We have no intention of disrupting newsroom operations. However, RBC authorities are not cooperating with the search,” he said. He added that the operation was connected to the FIR registered at Kalamassery police station in relation to the case.

RBC sources, however, alleged that the police team barged into the newsroom, disrupted its functioning, and took control of input calls. They further claimed that Ms. Ali had been taken into custody, though police declined to confirm this.

Protests against searches

The searches sparked widespread protests, with Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan condemning what he described as “a one-and-a-half-hour-long terrorising situation” created by the police inside the newsroom.

“The police atrocity was reminiscent of the dark days of the Emergency. It resembled the attacks being carried out against the media in BJP-ruled States and in Delhi under the Centre’s control. Kerala will not tolerate this assault aimed at silencing the media,” he said in a statement.

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has strongly condemned the alleged reprehensible attack on media, dubbing it as “a media hunt and an assault on democracy.”

“It is shocking that a group of police officers barged into the news desk and went so far as to seize the mobile phones of journalists. For one-and-a-half hours, the police created a climate of terror inside a news channel’s office — an outrage that should never occur in a democratic system under any circumstances. This excess must provoke strong public outrage.

The incident is reminiscent of the attack on the NewsClick office, where equipment was seized and editors were jailed. Such actions aimed at silencing the media cannot be accepted in Keralam. The Chief Minister and the Home Minister must answer for this assault on press freedom, said KUWJ president K.P. Rajeev and general secretary Suresh Edappal in their statement.

Meanwhile, the Ernakulam Press Club is set to stage a march to the office of the District Police Chief (Kochi City) later in the day to protest what it termed an attack on press freedom.