The Hindu Gets It Wrong: Mathew Samuel Has Not Been ‘Sent To Jail’

Tehelka's Mathew Samuel is very much a free man, contrary to the newspaper’s report.

WrittenBy:Arunabh Saikia
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Today’s Delhi edition of The Hindu carried a report titled “Tehelka journalist’s bail cancelled, sent to jail”. The journalist being referred to in the story is Mathew Samuel who is now the Managing Editor of Tehelka.

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Now, Tehelka, journalist, jail are words that our Twitterati love – and The Hindu’s search engine-optimised headline more than worked. Soon, outrage, which flows more freely on Twitter than expletives in Honey Singh’s songs, ensued.


However, it seems The Hindu got its facts wrong yet again. The report claimed: “Mathew Samuel, who worked with news portal tehelka.com, was sent to judicial custody till November 21.”  The story informed us that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge JPS Malik stated that there “was no justification in releasing him on bail again” as Samuel was deliberately delaying proceedings.

So when we called Samuel on his cellphone, hoping to get a quote from someone in his family, we were surprised (pleasantly, of course) to hear Samuel’s affable voice.  When we enquired about the report, which said he has been “sent to jail”, Samuel informed us that while he was denied bail at around 10 in the morning on November 10, the court granted him bail the same afternoon.

Samuel has been embroiled in a tenuous court battle for a long time for an alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act (OSA). The CBI alleges that Samuel had unlawfully procured official documents from a secret file from the Home Ministry and used it for a story he had done for Tehelka in 2000. Charges for the same alleged violations against the then Editor (Investigations) of Tehelka, Aniruddha Bahal, were dropped in May this year.

Importantly, the case concerned has nothing to do with Operation West End – the much talked-about Tehelka sting report about high-level corruption in India’s arm deals. The sting had resulted in the conviction of Bangaru Laxman, a former Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament, whom Samuel had caught on camera accepting a bribe. As an aftermath of the sting, Samuel had to spend much of his time in interrogation rooms and courts.

The current case, though, is about a story called “Are Dutch innocent?”. According to the CBI, the story quoted information allegedly obtained from a secret file, numbered 11011/40/99 and titled “Dutch interest in India’s fringe politics”. Two officials from the Home Ministry had also been chargesheeted by the CBI, but charges against them were subsequently dropped.

As Samuel himself told Newslaundry, The Hindu report is based on incidents of November 10 – which is more than a week ago. Which means that this wasn’t breaking news that the reporter filed. The story, which has been widely shared on the social media, continues to remain on The Hindu website at the time of this story going online.

Samuel, who is not on Twitter, hasn’t put out any clarification as yet. It is unlikely though he’d take any action against The Hindu. He has bigger battles to fight in the coming days. The next hearing, slated for November 21, for instance.

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