India
Keralam CM Refutes Police Disruption of Reporter TV During Search
Keralam Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan said on Wednesday that police did not disrupt news operations at the Reporter Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) office in Kochi. He explained that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had obtained a search warrant from the magistrate court to inspect the television channel’s premises. The warrant was based on an FIR filed by the SIT concerning a suspected conspiracy to defraud the government and Kerala’s football fans. The scheme allegedly promised to bring the 2022 FIFA World Cup‑winning Argentina team and former captain Lionel Messi to a friendly match at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi in August 2025.
Satheesan noted that the government had tasked the SIT with investigating whether promoters of the alleged scheme and their backers in the previous administration abused power, caused loss to the public exchequer, and engaged in money laundering and tax evasion. He said the probe was still in its preliminary stage and that the SIT might register additional cases and indict more people, including former high‑ranking officials, if further cognisable offences are uncovered.
The CM also criticized Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan, calling his remarks about press freedom “weeping crocodile tears.” Vijayan had accused the UDF of trespassing on press freedom and had previously been involved in the arrest of five journalists in 2017 for publishing news that the government deemed inconvenient.
CPI(M) leaders, including general secretary M.A. Baby and former law minister P. Rajeeve, had accused the UDF of adopting tactics similar to those used by the Modi government to intimidate the press. They claimed the police raids at RBC’s editorial offices were intended to chill media outlets not aligned with the Congress government.
Additional Director General of Police P. Vijayan, who heads the SIT, said investigators videographed the search operation, including at the premises of RBC’s chief executive officer and news presenter Anto Augustine. He denied that the SIT interfered with RBC’s editorial operations or confiscated journalists’ phones and laptops. He added that the raid was conducted in the presence of independent witnesses and that some documents relevant to the investigation were in digital lockers, which the SIT had accessed with court permission.