Journalist fraternity slams CBI's raid at Prannoy Roy's residence

Former political editor of NDTV, Rajdeep Sardesai suspected the authenticity of the allegation as the case dates back to 2010.

"Raid on @PrannoyRoyNDTV for a 2010case in 2017? CBI/IT must put details in public fora else will face charge of vendetta against media" Sardesai said on Twitter.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched raids on the residence of NDTV founder Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika at Greater Kailash-1 in New Delhi on Monday morning, The Hindu reported.

Simultaneous raids are being conducted in three other places.

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.

Sagarika Ghose, consulting editor of the Times of India, who is also the wife of Sardesai, refused to accept the allegations brought against Roy.

In a tweet posted in morning, Ghose said: "For generations of us journalists @PrannoyRoyNDTV is an eg of journalistic integrity and moral uprightness. Refuse to believe this."

Later, Ghose interpreted the raid as a message to media, as she said: "Selective raiding intended to send a signal to the media: toe the line, or else."

Ghose, who earlier worked for CNN-IBN, lashed out at some sections of media recently for pacifying the government.

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."
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.

Former journalist and political activitst, who is also a member of Aam Admi Party, Ashutosh attacked some sections of media for not responsding to the whole incident, besides considering the current media to be "scared".

In a tweet, he said: "It is a shame that other news TV channels are not standby NDTV/Prannoy Roy. Tomorrow they will be targeted."

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.