Messi event row: SIT raids TV channel in probe into financial gaps

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kerala police carried out raids at premises linked to Reporter Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) on Wednesday, including at the Kochi bureau of news channel Reporter TV, in connection with its probe into alleged financial irregularities for the proposed visit of Lionel Messi and the Argentine football team to Keralam.

While a team led by Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner of Police Bijoy Chandran CK raided the news channel’s headquarters in Kochi, simultaneous searches were carried out at premises linked to Anto Augustine, managing director of RBC, in Kochi and Wayanad. The TV news network is part of RBC’s corporate assets.

Journalists and editorial staff of Reporter TV claimed that the police officers barged into their workspace in the middle of the TV broadcast and seized the official and personal cellphones of some of them. TV visuals showed the top editorial staff of the news channel engaged in verbal arguments with the ACP over the manner of the police raids and the violation of press freedoms.

“We came here armed with the court’s search warrant. We tried to hand over the notice intending to search the administrative offices of the TV channel. But they were not ready to take receipt of the notice. We pleaded with the TV staff to cooperate with our search, but they were unwilling to do so,” Chandran told reporters.

The Ernakulam district committee of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) condemned the police action and termed it an “infringement on press freedom.”

Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said the police action at the TV news channel’s office reminded of the events during the Emergency in the 1970s.

“The scenes today were similar to the police action on media offices in Delhi and BJP-ruled states. They are similar to the raids carried out on NewsClick and the jailing of its editor. Kerala can never accept such police action,” he said in a statement.

However, Chief Minister VD Satheesan sought to defend the police action and dismissed reports of disruption of news broadcast.

“The raid is part of a legally conducted police investigation. I heard about the raids when I saw it on the same channel. The government does not want to intervene in the police action,” he said.

In 2023, then sports minister V Abdurahiman had announced that the State government was partnering with RBC to host the Messi-led Argentine side to play a friendly exhibition match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi at no cost to the public exchequer. The former minister even travelled to Spain on one occasion to reportedly hold talks with the Argentina Football Association (AFA) officials and had claimed at one point that AFA has agreed to send the delegation, including Messi, to Kerala. However, the event failed to materialise.

A preliminary inquiry report by the sports department has flagged serious charges including GST fraud, lapses in the way the private sponsor was picked by the government and inflated expenditure bills. A parallel SIT of the state finance department has pointed to purported tax evasion amounted to ₹25.78 crore by RBC and submitted a report to the Commissioner of State Goods and Services Tax department.