According to the news website Pgurus, CBI has served show cause notice to the NDTV for tax evasions of approximately 800 crores and personal tax evasion by the Prannoy and Radhika Roy, promoters of NDTV, in the tune of Rs 30 crores. Income Tax Department has also started criminal proceedings against the controversial news channel and its notorious promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. The 36 page show-cause notice states that the Roy couple and NDTV will face the charge of violation of Income Tax Act provisions under Section 276C, 277, 278 and 278B.
The charges also include false statements, abetment of a false return, and suppression of taxable income. According to the Income Tax and criminal prosecution laws, all these charges could lead up to imprisonment for 7 years along with fine.
Prannoy Roy tried his best to escape the punishment. Initially, he achieved some success. He managed to get those officers transferred who were handling the NDTV files but the transferred officers were restored to their old positions once BJP leader Subramanian Swamy complained to PM Modi about these transfers and victimization of honest officers working in the Finance Ministry.
In March 2018, Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) had slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on NDTV and Rs 3 lakh each on Roy couple for disclosure lapses. It’s not the first time that the NDTV has been on the radar of financial frauds investigating agencies for all the wrong reasons. According to Pgurus, NDTV was involved in FIPB violations as well during the tenure of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Going by this version, the CBI and the ED have discovered that in March 2007, the FIPB under Chidambaram had allowed the channel to bring in a maximum of Rs. 585 crores from its foreign subsidiaries. However, later on it was discovered by the Income Tax Department that it had illegally brought in Rs. 1200 crores.
Recently, NDTV sold 7.3 percent of its stakes in its subsidiary, Red pixels ventures, to A R Chadha and Co, the landlord of their office premises in New Delhi, in order to pay rent. Last Year, NDTV announced reduction of workforce by 25%. Its shareholders had announced and approved the sale of its automobile e-commerce firm Fifth Gear Ventures to Autobyte Pvt Ltd. In June, 2017, they had approved the sale of its Indian wear e-commerce firm NDTV Ethnic Retail Ltd to Nameh Hotels & Resorts Pvt Ltd. This shows that the media company is in very deep financial crisis. It looks like NDTV with all its fake news, misleading and manipulative propaganda is not able to gather enough financial resources to meet its financial needs.
Problems for NDTV are only exacerbating and its political patronage is also not in power to help out. It is in sad state today because of its agenda driven journalism, prioritizing agenda over truth and vicious hatred for one particular party. Because of all these biases, it’s viewership has drastically decreased but still they didn’t learned their lesson and carried own with their anti-India and anti-Hindu propaganda. The alienation of viewers is clearly visible in their TRP ratings where it is on the last spot. If NDTV does not get its house in order, financially as well as qualitatively, the end might not be very far. The Income Tax Department notice is another reminder of this fact.
