 "The B with a sting")
Aniruddha Bahal walks tall. It is not difficult to spot the six-footer in a crowded Constitution Club. As he prepares to unveil Operation Red Spider, an audacious attempt to expose the underbelly of private banking, in a casual checked shirt, blue jeans and dust-coloured Crocs, he hardly looks edgy. After all, Bahal is the un-anointed king of stings in India.
In 1999, at Tehelka, he was part of the team that conceived and executed the first major spy-camera enabled sting operation. Tekelka's sting caught on camera members of the Indian cricket team accepting bribes to throw away matches. Bahal was also involved in Operation West End, which exposed corruption in awarding defence contracts. The sting implicated leaders across the political spectrum, including then Bharatiya Janata Party chief Bangaru Laxman, who was caught on camera accepting cash to fix defence contracts.
About an hour into the screening of Operation Red Spider, a sleekly edited spy-camera video film backed by witty commentary that mocks the marketing claims of the banks involved, Bahal drops his original plan to hold a press conference at the end of the screening and starts giving snappy bytes to the impatient TV reporters. Someone familiar with the recent expose-cum-campaigns asks what his demands are. "I don't have any demands," he snaps back. "Come and see."
About eight years ago, the 45-year-old Bahal floated Cobrapost, an online news magazine. One of the magazine's noted stories was Operation Duryodhana, through which it exposed the members of Parliament accepting cash to ask questions in the House.
Bahal's colleague Syed Masroor Hasan, who carried out the sting operation, is conspicuously absent at the press conference. Other employees of the magazine are distributing hundreds of press releases in the form of neatly packed compact discs, which seem to have cost a lot of money. While Bahal seems happy entertaining the journalists present, even bear-hugging some, he is not comfortable talking about Cobrapost.
"We don't disclose all that," he said when asked about his team, its methods and finances. "Why are you asking me about my funding? We are a media production company. We produce TV shows and sell them."
Asked if he had sold Operation Red Spider to anyone, he says "I haven't sold this to anyone."
A Cobrapost staffer says the company operates from Noida. "In the past, we have had content tie-ups with IBN-7 and CNN-IBN. We also have a print tie-up with The Hindu," he adds.
Born in Allahabad, Bahal worked as a journalist and editor for India Today and Outlook before launching Tehelka, then a news website, with Tarun Tejpal. He started his career as a fiction writer. His A Crack in the Mirror, published in 1991, sold 500 copies. His Bunker 13 fetched him a Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
In 2006, a profile story in the UK's The Independent records how journalism became more than just a way to support Bahal's fiction efforts. "It started to get too interesting," Bahal had told the author. "It's an intoxicating combination - civic outrage and the thrill of chasing a big story."
In 1999, at Tehelka, he was part of the team that conceived and executed the first major spy-camera enabled sting operation. Tekelka's sting caught on camera members of the Indian cricket team accepting bribes to throw away matches. Bahal was also involved in Operation West End, which exposed corruption in awarding defence contracts. The sting implicated leaders across the political spectrum, including then Bharatiya Janata Party chief Bangaru Laxman, who was caught on camera accepting cash to fix defence contracts.
About an hour into the screening of Operation Red Spider, a sleekly edited spy-camera video film backed by witty commentary that mocks the marketing claims of the banks involved, Bahal drops his original plan to hold a press conference at the end of the screening and starts giving snappy bytes to the impatient TV reporters. Someone familiar with the recent expose-cum-campaigns asks what his demands are. "I don't have any demands," he snaps back. "Come and see."
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When Business Standard asks him about the genesis of the latest exposé, Bahal says, "Isn't black money in the news for the past few years? These are the top blue-chip banks. Look at what they are doing. If it's happening here, make your own guess about the rest."
About eight years ago, the 45-year-old Bahal floated Cobrapost, an online news magazine. One of the magazine's noted stories was Operation Duryodhana, through which it exposed the members of Parliament accepting cash to ask questions in the House.
Bahal's colleague Syed Masroor Hasan, who carried out the sting operation, is conspicuously absent at the press conference. Other employees of the magazine are distributing hundreds of press releases in the form of neatly packed compact discs, which seem to have cost a lot of money. While Bahal seems happy entertaining the journalists present, even bear-hugging some, he is not comfortable talking about Cobrapost.
"We don't disclose all that," he said when asked about his team, its methods and finances. "Why are you asking me about my funding? We are a media production company. We produce TV shows and sell them."
Asked if he had sold Operation Red Spider to anyone, he says "I haven't sold this to anyone."
A Cobrapost staffer says the company operates from Noida. "In the past, we have had content tie-ups with IBN-7 and CNN-IBN. We also have a print tie-up with The Hindu," he adds.
Born in Allahabad, Bahal worked as a journalist and editor for India Today and Outlook before launching Tehelka, then a news website, with Tarun Tejpal. He started his career as a fiction writer. His A Crack in the Mirror, published in 1991, sold 500 copies. His Bunker 13 fetched him a Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
In 2006, a profile story in the UK's The Independent records how journalism became more than just a way to support Bahal's fiction efforts. "It started to get too interesting," Bahal had told the author. "It's an intoxicating combination - civic outrage and the thrill of chasing a big story."