- Saturday, May 17, 2025
Shah is one of the directors of Lok Prakashan Limited, which owns the Gujarat Samachar, and brother of Shreyansh Shah, the managing editor of the daily
By: India Weekly
BAHUBALI SHAH, one of the owners of ‘Gujarat Samachar’, was detained by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday (16), following a raid on their premises in Ahmedabad.
Founded in 1932, Gujarat Samachar is one of the leading vernacular newspapers in Gujarat.
Shah (73) is one of the directors of Lok Prakashan Limited, which owns the Gujarat Samachar, and his elder brother, Shreyansh Shah, is the managing editor of the daily.
Tushar Dave, head of digital services at GSTV, a Gujarati news channel run by Shreyansh Shah, said the ED detained Bahubali Shah early Friday.
In a Facebook post, Dave said Shah was first taken to VS Hospital by the ED and then admitted to Zydus Hospital in the city after his health deteriorated.
The federal anti-money laundering agency has not yet issued any statement about the reasons behind its action.
Earlier, the Income Tax department searched the GSTV premises in Ahmedabad for nearly 36 hours.
The ED raided the premises on Thursday evening, soon after I-T officials left, Dave said in another Facebook post.
Gujarat MLA and Congress state working president Jignesh Mevani has slammed the ED on Gujarat Samachar.
He said the owners are being targeted because for the last 25 years the newspaper has been publishing reports critical of the central government.
In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the government is putting pressure on independent media which is fatal for democracy.
Citing prime minister Narendra Modi’s recent interview in which he had said, ‘Criticism is the soul of Democracy’, Kharge said by getting the founder of Gujarat Samachar arrested by ED, “Modi ji has proved that arresting critics is the first sign of a scared dictator”.
“Whoever raises voice against this government, and who does not compromise with BJP, will have to go to jail. The government putting pressure on independent media and using it to its own advantage is fatal for democracy,” Kharge charged.
