CBI raids NDTV’s Prannoy Roy's home, the channel issues statement today

NDTV channel promoters, Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika's home and office were raided and thoroughly searched by The Central Bureau of Investigation, with relation to a bank fraud. 

Though there was no investigation at the premises of the channel, officials of the CBI searched the office of RRPR Holding Private Ltd, the promoter company of the English and Hindi news channels. According to a leading daily, searches were on at Dehradun, Delhi and Uttarakhand. 

Last week, the CBI had registered a case into alleged irregularities in a 2008 loan that the holding company took from ICICI Bank.

According to reports, the company had apparently taken a loan of Rs 366 crore on personal guarantees of the promoters and settled for a repayment a year later that was Rs 50 crore less than the loaned amount.

A source from the CBI told a daily, “A case of bank fraud has been registered against RRPR and unknown bank officials. This is part of CBI’s recent crackdown on bank frauds and wilful defaulters.”

It has been known, that the Enforcement Directorate and Income tax authorities were investigating NDTV since 2014.

Lately, the Delhi high court allowed the income tax department to take a step against NDTV in a separate case for receiving funds from a foreign funding institution and settling the account 80 % less than the original amount.

While reports claim that there is no response from Roy yet, NDTV has just released a statement in regard to the raids. 

It read:

"This morning, the CBI stepped up the concerted harassment of NDTV and its promoters based on the same old endless false accusations.

NDTV and its promoters will fight tirelessly against this witch-hunt by multiple agencies. We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India.

We have one message to those who are trying to destroy the institutions of India and everything it stands for: we will fight for our country and overcome these forces."