Kerala police book Reporter TV MD over CM marriage claim

Kerala Police have registered an FIR against Anto Augustine, Managing Director of Reporter TV, and two others for allegedly fabricating documents claiming Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan had registered a second marriage in Karnataka in 2012. The case, filed on a complaint by Congress leader Raju P. Nair, invokes sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for forgery, criminal conspiracy and defamation.

Augustine had said two men approached him with the documents, but his journalists found them false after checking the registrar's office in Byndoor, Karnataka, so the channel did not air the story. Nair alleged the claim was a conspiracy to destabilise the government, and that Augustine may have made the revelation as a pressure tactic while facing a separate SIT probe into a failed attempt to bring Lionel Messi and the Argentina football team to Kerala.

On the same day, a Special Investigation Team searched Reporter TV's Kochi headquarters and other premises in connection with the Messi event probe, which Augustine said he would cooperate with but refused to answer questions about his news sources. The Kalamassery police are now investigating the complaint.