CBI raids NDTV founder Prannoy Roy's residence, channel vows to fight back
Simultaneous raids are being conducted in three other places.
Roy has been long hailed as a father of modern TV journalism in India and was highly respected as a journalist till in recent years controversies dogged the channel and its star reporters.
According to reports, the CBI confirmed that searches were carried out at four places in New Delhi and Dehradun.
The CBI has registered a case against the Roys, a private company and others for causing an alleged loss of Rs. 48 crore to ICICI Bank.
The FIR said the defaulted loan by Roy is for a private company RRPR Holdings Private Limited.
Reacting to the CBI raids, NDTV has released the following statement: "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."
Former NDTV journalist and its celebrity host Barkha Dutt earlier was embroiled in controversy after she was found as one of the journalists in the Radia tapes, pertaining to the telephonic conversations between Nira Radia, an influence peddler and an acquaintance of the then Indian telecom minister A. Raja, and with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, taped by the Indian Income Tax Department in 2008–09.
NDTV is also seen as a channel which was against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and considered close to the Congress even as the channel maintained all along that it was neutral in its coverage of news.
Recently in a TV programme on cattle trade and cow slaughter rules, its host Nidhi Razdan asked BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra to leave the show for disrupting the discussion and when the latter called NDTV as a channel with an agenda.
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