Published Sep 17, 2026 | 8:40 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 17, 2026 | 8:41 PM
The arrest followed a search at his Wayanad house on Wednesday.
Synopsis: Reporter TV Managing Director Anto Augustine was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days, hours after he was arrested by the Keralam Excise Department for storing alcoholic beverages in excess of the permitted quantity at his ancestral house. The liquor was found during a Kerala Police SIT search of his Wayanad house as part of an investigation into Messi fiasco.
The Sultan Bathery Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Thursday, 17 September, remanded Malayalam television news channel Reporter TV’s Managing Director Anto Augustine to 14 days of judicial custody. He will be lodged at the District Jail, Wayanad, in Mananthavady.
The Excise Department arrested Augustine from his Kochi office early on Thursday after booking him under under Sections 55A, 55I and 58 of the Abkari Act Abkari Act for storing alcoholic beverages in excess of the permitted quantity at his ancestral house in Wayanad.
He was taken to the Aluva District Hospital for the mandatory medical examination and then to the Excise Assistant Commissioner’s office in Meenangadi, where his statement was recorded. The proceedings at the Excise office lasted nearly five hours. He was then taken to the court shortly before the day’s proceedings ended, accompanied by his lawyer.
The court heard arguments and counter-arguments for nearly one-and-a-half hours before ordering the remand.
During the hearing, the defence argued that the house from which the liquor was seized was not registered in Augustine’s name. The prosecution produced evidence concerning the ownership and possession of the premises.
Also Read: Mamkootathil to Messi: The tangled politics behind the Keralam Police raid on Reporter TV
The arrest followed a search at his Wayanad house on Wednesday, 16 September, by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kerala police into alleged financial irregularities surrounding the failed visit of football star Lionel Messi and the Argentine national team to Keralam.
The SIT conducted coordinated searches at five locations across the State early on Wednesday under a court order. It found 43 litres of hard liquor and seven litres of wine at Augustine’s house and alerted the Excise Department.
Rules permit an unlicensed individual to keep three litres of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), 2.3 litres of foreign liquor and 3.5 litres of wine.
The Excise Department subsequently booked a case. A conviction under the section can attract up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a minimum fine of ₹1 lakh.
(Edited by Dese Gowda with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
