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Kerala police raid Reporter TV office over Messi event financial probe
Journalists and editorial staff of Reporter TV said that the police barged into their workspace during the TV broadcast
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A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kerala police carried out raids in the early hours of Wednesday at premises linked to Reporter Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) 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 Kerala.
While a team led by Thrikkakara assistant commissioner of police (ACP) 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.
Journalists and editorial staff of Reporter TV said that the police barged into their workspace during the TV broadcast and seized some official and personal cellphones. TV visuals showed the news channel’s top editorial staff 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 said.
The Ernakulam district committee of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) condemned the police action, terming it an “infringement on press freedom.”
Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said the police action at the TV news channel’s office was reminiscent of events during the Emergency in the 1970s.
“The scenes today were similar to the police action on media offices in Delhi and [Bharatiya Janata Party] 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.
In 2023, the then sports minister V Abdurahiman 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 claimed that AFA agreed to send the delegation, including Messi, to Kerala. However, the event failed to materialise.
A preliminary inquiry report by the sports department flagged serious charges including GST fraud, lapses in how the government picked the private sponsor, and inflated expenditure bills. A parallel SIT of the state finance department pointed to purported tax evasion amounting to ₹25.78 crore by RBC and submitted a report to the Commissioner of State Goods and Services Tax department.
