The Hindu’s S Vijay Kumar won the 2017 Ramnath Goenka award for investigative reporting in the print category. In June 2017, Kumar had exposed a ₹39.91 crore gutkha scam in Tamil Nadu. According to The Hindu’s exposé: “The manufacturer of the MDM brand of gutkha had allegedly paid several crores of rupees as kickbacks to the Tamil Nadu health minister, senior IPS officers, and officials of various central and state government departments between 2014 and 2016 to ensure the manufacture, storage and sale of gutkha—a banned substance in Tamil Nadu since 2013.”

Newslaundry interviewed Kumar about the story that won him this award, the challenges facing investigative reporters, organisational support and more.

What were the challenges of working on such a story?

This is a multi-crore scam involving the Tamil Nadu health minister, Director General of Police, former Chennai Police Commissioner and several others senior officials across the police, health, food safety, excise and other departments. Soon after the scam was exposed by The Hindu in June 2017, there were instant protests by opposition parties that demanded the resignation of the minister and action against the officials. The then ongoing Budget session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly was stalled for four days.

The state government refuted allegations that there was no confidential report of the Income Tax department on the corruption involving the minister and officials as exposed by The Hindu.

The challenges were in braving the direct or subtle “pressure” from various angles and going ahead with writing more to reveal the sequence-by-sequence happenings in the sensational bribery case which later became infamous as the gutkha scam in Tamil Nadu.

While there’s much romance associated with investigative reporting, what are the hardships one faces as an investigative reporter?

An investigative reporter has to be conscious of the fact that his/her movements, activities, calls, contacts, emails, messages etc would all be closely monitored by different agencies and vested interests. The priority should not only be in personal and family safety but protecting the identity of the sources as well. In my case, soon after exposing the gutkha scam in Tamil Nadu, I had strong reasons to believe that my mobile calls were monitored and earlier call details records could have been taken for scrutiny to fix the sources of the story.

Though there was pressure from various quarters to stop the series, my institution stood by me and gave all the motivation to continue writing about the scam. Besides untimely food and sleep, meetings sources at odd hours and at undisclosed remote locations had become a routine. With pressure mounting from the powers that be and the case already in the Madras High Court on a petition seeking CBI investigation, the primary source backed off but then I was thrilled to find new sources willing to talk and share in the pursuit to unravel the truth in the scam.

An essential part of conducting investigations is cultivating sources in the right places. How do you go about this?

Anybody who is willing to talk is a source. Every piece of information has to be taken with a pinch of salt but worth pursuing. I have come across many instances where bits pieces of information gathered from different unconnected sources turned out to be a major story. Though the reputation of the newspaper at times is the basis of cultivating sources, the credibility of the individual reporter and his/her approach, attitude and style of writing a report matters equally. Many sources try to contact reporters after reading many of their stories in the past.

Do you ever wonder if it’s worth all the risks involved?

Yes. Having come to the profession of journalism and tying the knot to investigative reporting, risks are imperative at every level. Having said that, I should also say that the reporter has to overcome threats and perform amidst such constraints. But then, there should be no fear when the objective is absolutely professional and serves a noble cause. We have to make sure that we don’t walk into a trap laid by vested interests and start writing targeting an individual or institution. End of the day what matters is whether we have written the truth without any motive or element of exaggeration. And we have to strongly believe that truth will always triumph.

If you had to give the award to a journalist in the same category as yours, who would you give it to and for which story?

Shujaat Bukhari, The Hindu’s former correspondent in Kashmir deserves to be awarded posthumously for his outstanding contribution to news reporting. He might have fallen to the bullets of terrorists but his work will inspire many more to keep the mission of truth-telling going.

What do you think is the role of an organisation that people work with, in deciding how and what kind of investigation is done—in terms of funding and editorial support?

Any newspaper organisation should trust its reporter, provide complete functional autonomy and stand by him/her through the tough times.