Jailed journalist Mahesh Langa now booked in Rs 40 lakh extortion case

Ahmedabad: In a fresh trouble for jailed journalist Mahesh Langa, the Gujarat police have registered a case against him for allegedly extorting Rs 40 lakh from a real estate agent by threatening to malign his image and implicate him in a false case, officials said.

Langa is currently in jail in four previous cases registered by Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Rajkot police.

"Now, an FIR under section 308 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) that deals with extortion, was registered on January 23 by the Satellite police station in Ahmedabad city on a complaint by Janak Thakor, a real estate agent and a social worker," police inspector H C Zala said, adding that further action will be taken after investigation.

This is the fifth First Information Report (FIR) that has been registered against Langa, who worked with a leading newspaper in Gujarat, after his arrest by the Ahmedabad police's crime branch in an alleged Goods and Services Tax (GST) scam in October last year.

As per the latest FIR, the complainant came in touch with Langa in 2020 through another property agent. In the first meeting at a coffee shop in Bodakdev area, Langa claimed that besides being a journalist, he also worked as a real estate agent.

Langa allegedly claimed that he knew many high-ranking officials as well as politicians and used that influence to settle matters related to disputed properties to earn hefty commission.

Langa then offered Thakor to bring such disputed cases to him and earn a very high commission on the deals. Langa also promised Thakor that he will help the latter in becoming a reputed builder and also in bringing an IPO (initial public offering).

Convinced by Langa's tall claims, Thakor used to give him money whenever he demanded. In all, Thakor gave him Rs 20 lakh with a hope that Langa will give him some property-related work. In January 2024, Langa wrote an article in 'The Hindu' daily about the real estate market in GIFT City and described Thakor in the article as a "reputed social worker", the FIR said.

Langa then asked Thakor to pay him Rs 20 lakh for projecting him as a social worker through his article. When Thakor denied, Langa started threatening him. Langa allegedly threatened to malign Thakor's image by writing another article and also threatened to trap him in a false case. As per the FIR, Thakor lost some property deals due to Langa's intervention.

To avoid further loss and harassment, Thakor finally agreed to pay Rs 20 lakh to Langa. As per the FIR, Langa accepted Rs 20 lakh in July 2024. But despite getting the money, he started demanding more from him, prompting the complainant to approach the police, the FIR said.

The first FIR against Langa and others was registered in October last year on a complaint from the central GST department over an alleged scam of floating bogus firms with an intent to defraud the government by availing bogus input tax credit through fraudulent transactions.

Later, on October 23, Langa and an unidentified employee of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) were booked by the Gandhinagar police on the charges of theft following the recovery of official documents from his premises during raids conducted by the crime branch in connection with the alleged GST fraud.

In the same month, Ahmedabad police registered a cheating case against Langa for allegedly duping a businessman of Rs 28.68 lakh.

In December last month, Rajkot police took Langa's custody from Sabarmati Jail and formally arrested him in another case of GST evasion.