Local Goa News

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Top editors, publisher of English daily booked

PANAJI: Crime Branch police has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Herald editor-in-chief Raul Fernandes, group editor Sujay Gupta, printer and publisher of Herald Vinayak Pai Bir under the gambling act and criminal conspiracy (120-B IPC).

According to police, the FIR has also named other management, sales and editorial personnel of Herald Publications and Herald Cable Network (HCN).
The FIR was registered on Thursday evening and subsequently Crime Branch teams raided the Herald publication premises in the city as well as its printing press in Verna. The raids went on till late night on Thursday.
Police also raided a number of places in Margao, Verna, Panaji and Porvorim and seized housie tickets, account books in connection with the case. During the raids, police also seized computer, gaming servers, account books and tickets from its office at Campal. According to police, the machine at the Verna printing press that was allegedly used to print the housie tickets has also been sealed.
It may be recalled that advocate Rajeev Gomes had filed a complaint claiming that the accused were running a gambling racket under the garb of housie. The complaint is pertaining to a live game show of housie appearing on HCN (local cable television news channel, a subsidiary of the newspaper) which assures prizes worth lakhs of rupees.
“It is a gambling racket operated under the garb of housie. Gambling is against public policy, and it is therefore imperative to conduct a thorough investigation into this gambling racket by this media house using a well connected network of agents,” Gomes had said.
Gomes in his complaint had mentioned that it is a well-planned ploy to camouflage the entire gaming process and the element of gambling involved.
Meanwhile, Crime Branch, which is conducting preliminary inquiry into a separate complaint of allegedly hatching a criminal conspiracy to extort money from commercial entities, questioned Herald’s assistant general manager of sales Adwait Desai for the second time on Thursday. Desai was also questioned on Wednesday.
In his complaint, Gomes had requested the police to conduct proper inquiry into the video content that is being circulated through social media network accusing the newspaper. The video was presumably recorded using a spy camera in 2015 and according to police Desai is seen (in the video) negotiating with a casino official. According to police, they have also examined a chartered accountant who is associated with a casino in connection with the case.

NT Network Goa News

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