The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Baahubali Shah, a director in the firm running one of the oldest newspapers in Gujarat, Gujarat Samachar and local news channel GSTV. After his arrest on Thursday evening, Shah got interim bail on the grounds of ill health, according to national media.

Shreyansbhai Shah, Baahubali’s elder brother and the publisher and managing editor of Gujarat Samachar, told national media that ED officials came with an arrest warrant for Baahubali following a two-day-long continuous search by the income tax department.

According to the family of Baahubali, he was arrested in connection with a case of money laundering that the agency has been probing since 2023. The newspaper company is being tracked by both the Enforcement Directorate and the IT department for tax evasion.

Opposition Responds

Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, took to the social media platform X and criticised the actions of the ED, “The attempt to silence Gujarat Samachar is another conspiracy to suppress the voice of not just a newspaper but the entire democracy. When newspapers that hold power accountable are locked, then we understand that the democracy is in danger. The arrest of Baahubali Shah is a part of the same politics of fear, which has now become the identity of the Modi government,” read the post by Gandhi