Kerala HC grants bail to Malayalam news channel MD

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Anto Augustine, managing director of a private Malayalam news channel, in an Abkari case following the seizure of liquor bottles above the permissible limit from his ancestral house in Wayanad.

Justice Kauser Edappagath, while granting the relief to Augustine — managing director of Reporter Broadcasting Company (RBC), said that he was not an accused in any other similar case involving Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) currently or in the past.

Justice Edappagath said that he has been granting bail in all IMFL cases unless the accused has more than one case against them or has past antecedents of committing similar crimes.
“Even though the applicant (Augustine) has criminal antecedents, he is not involved in any other crime of similar nature. For these reasons, I do not find any reason to hold that the continued detention of the applicant is required for any purpose. Hence, the applicant is entitled to be released on bail,” the judge said.

The High Court also brushed aside the contention of the Director General of Prosecution (DGP) T Asaf Ali that the RBC MD was a man of “money and might”, saying “that does not matter.”
The DGP also told the court that Augustine was not answering queries of the police and was not cooperating with the probe.

The High Court said that the accused need not answer all the queries of the police and that conditions can be imposed on him to appear before the investigating officer and to cooperate with the probe. It also noted that the RBC MD was given in police custody for a day and that recovery of the liquor has been effected.

Augustine had also claimed that the house from where the liquor was seized was no longer in his possession as the property where it was situated was sold in 2022 by a bank following proceedings initiated under the SARFAESI Act. The DGP, on the other hand, contended that according to the land revenue receipt and also the document issued by the concerned Village Officer, the property was still in Augustine’s possession.