Mathew Samuel is a former managing editor of the Indian news magazine ''

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' () is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and another colleague ...

''. He is one of the members of the magazine, and as a special correspondent there, he instigated Tehelka's biggest corruption investigation, Operation West End. This

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a rol ...

led to the resignation of four senior ministers of the

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

(NDA) and nearly brought down the BJP-led national government in 2001. The top politicians and officials caught in the sting were later convicted by the court of law. His YouTube channel was banned in India as on 9th May 2025. As of 6th June 2025 his YouTube channel is working for the past 1 week. We are not aware of the reasons of revoking the ban on his channel.

Career

Mathew Samuel was born in a Christian family in Pathanapuram, Kerala. He attended St. Stephens College Pathanapuram, was active in politics, and was the college union secretary. He worked in Delhi for ''

Mangalam Mangalam is a census town in Tiruppur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Geography Mangalam is located at . It has an average elevation of 32 metres (104 feet). It is located 1 kilometer toward the South from District headqua ...

'' newspaper and ''

Mid-Day ''Mid-Day'' (stylised as mid-day) is a morning daily Indian compact newspaper. Editions in various languages including Gujarati and English have been published out of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune so far. In 2011, the Delhi and Bangalore ...

'' for a short period. He later joined ''

'' as a staff reporter, and became managing editor in 2014. He has also worked in Delhi for the publication ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'', and for television channels NewsX, Live India and

India TV India TV is a Hindi television news channel based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The channel was launched on 20 May 2004 by Rajat Sharma and his wife Ritu Dhawan. The channel is a subsidiary of Independent News Service, which was co-founded ...

. He is based in New Delhi. He resigned from Tehelka in February 2016 to start his own news venture, Narada News.

Operation West End

The sting was the brainchild of Mathew Samuel. He got the beginning of the story on a train journey in which one of his co-passengers turned out to be a supplier for Defence Canteens. The sting operation lasted for about eight months and revealed involvement of public figures in corruption. Samuel met with approximately 60 people, including arms dealers, and exposed corruption at high levels of power. The public figures involved were

George Fernandes George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian politician, trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the Minister of Defence (India), Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. A veteran socialist, h ...

(Defence Minister),

Bangaru Laxman Bangaru Laxman (17 March 1939 – 1 March 2014) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was president of the party from 2000 to 2001 and served as Minister o ...

(BJP president),

Jaya Jaitly Jaya Jaitly (born 14 June 1942) is an Indian politician, activist, author, Indian handicrafts curator and former President of Samata Party. She stepped down as party president because of the Operation West End controversy in 2002. In 2020 s ...

(president of the Samatha Party), R. K. Jain (treasurer of Samatha Party), R K Sharma (treasurer of RSS), General Manjith Singh Aluvalia, Major General P. S. K. Chowdhary, General R. K. Murge, General Satnam Singh, Brigadier Iqbal Singh, Colonel Anil Saigal, H. C. Panth, P. Sasi, and Surender Kumar Surekha, a Kanpur based businessman. On July 30,2020, Special CBI judge Virender Bhat awarded 4-year jail term to former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (rtd) S.P. Murgai. There were 105 videotapes. Samuel alone shot 99 tapes; the rest were shot with his colleague.

Narada sting operations

Mathew Samuel is also credited for conducting the Narada sting operation and publishing it in the new website. naradanews.com.

References

External links

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CBI file case against tehelka scribe under OSAInterview

Tehelka editorial
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Mathew Journalists from Kerala Living people 1971 births People from Kollam district Indian editors Indian publishers (people)