The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court, on Thursday (September 24, 2026), reserved its order on the anticipatory bail plea moved by Reporter TV managing director Anto Augustine in the case related to the alleged multi-crore fraud behind the failed bid to bring Argentina football team led by Lionel Messi to Keralam.
The court is likely to pass verdict on Friday. Mr. Augustine moved the application anticipating an imminent move to arrest him after the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case carried out search operations at the headquarters of Reporter Broadcasting Private Limited and locations linked to him and his brothers last week. Incidentally, he was arrested and remanded in judicial custody in an Abkari case registered by the excise after 67 litres of liquor, which was beyond the permissible limit, were seized from his ancestral home in Wayanad. He has since secured bail from the High Court.
However, the prosecution informed the court that the SIT wants to summon him for interrogation and has no immediate plans to arrest him. The prosecution strongly opposed returning $6,200 seized by the SIT during the search operations, for which Mr. Augustine had moved the court, on the ground that the source of the foreign currency remains to be established and highlighting the need for forensic accounting.
‘Second marriage’ row
Mr. Augustine has also moved the court for anticipatory bail in another case registered based on his allegations that Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan had entered into a second marriage while his existing marriage was subsisting.The case was originally registered by the Cybercrime police, Thiruvananthapuram City, based on a complaint filed by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson Raju P. Nair. It was since transferred to the Kochi City Police, considering that the alleged place of occurrence of the controversial remarks made by Mr. Augustine was Kalamassery. That petition is likely to come up before the court on September 26.
Published – September 24, 2026 07:42 pm IST
