A new case has been recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation for an alleged breach by FDI of the law and routing of torn cash by unidentified government officials through shell enterprises against NDTV Limited, its promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy and others.
The firm replied on Wednesday: “Though the inquiry has been intentionally halted in a number of instances, NDTV has not discovered any proof that NDTV is being corrupted. In all matters filed against them, Prannoy and Radhika Roy, the NDTV founders and the company cooperated.
Allegedly persecuting the free press, NDTV stated that NBCU, which then belonged to U.S.-based General Electric, had filed an investment of about $150 million in its non-news business.
Among the people accused by the FIR were Vikramaditya Chandra, then the CEO of NDTV and director, and unknown officials from the Income Tax Department.
A preliminary investigation into the allegations is based on the FIR. The agency said that NDTV operated between 2004 and 2010, “mostly in financial paradises, around 32 subsidiaries around the world. Holland, Great Britain, Dubai, Malaysia, Mauritius, etc.
Most of these businesses were claimed to have no company operations and were only designed to raise funds from overseas. Unknown public servants reportedly invested the funds in NDTV and then washed back to India through several layers of complex transactions and shell companies, CBI alleged.
In November 2006, the FIR says that in London, NDTV established Network PLC (NNPLC). In March 2007, it got $20 million from Fuse Media Holding LP through the problem of preferential shares and warrants. NNPLC raised an additional $100 million from Jefferies International, which then transferred about $194 crore to multiple subsidiaries of the NDTV Group.
