The Gujarat High Court has granted anticipatory bail to journalist Mahesh Langa in an FIR which accuses him of obtaining highly confidential government documents through alleged corruption, criminal conspiracy and theft, LiveLaw reported.
Langa is in judicial custody in a case pertaining to alleged GST fraud and the high court had earlier rejected his regular bail plea.
Justice Hasmukh D Sutha noted that provisions of the Official Secrets Act had not been invoked in the case. About the Prevention of Corruption Act, the court said to offer illegal gratification is a cognisable offence and a “mere attempt” under section 7(a) is also an offence.
The court said that it is not going into whether an offence is made out or not in view of the order which had refused to quash the FIR. However, it said that merely keeping a copy of the information does not amount to offence alleged.
Newslaundry reported in detail on the cases against Langa. Why didn’t local journalists speak up in support of him in the face of so much police action? Read our report to find out.
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