Will Prannoy Roy sell his stakes in the channel now?
Income Tax Department has issued Rs.353 crore tax dues notice to Prannoy Roy headed TV Channel NDTV. As per the NDTV’s Disclosure to Stock Exchanges on April 1, the Income Tax Department issued an assessment order for Rs.353,36,43,465 crores and the TV channel claimed that this Income Tax Notice was a violation against the recent Delhi High Court order. As per the people who track the frauds of NDTV, with this fresh Rs.353 crore dues, the TV Channel’s tax dues have crossed Rs.800 crore, which would force Prannoy Roy to sell his stakes in the channel.
In the disclosure notice to Stock Exchanges, NDTV claimed that on March 22, the Delhi High Court said that the TV channel does not need to pay further tax dues and the next hearing of the case is scheduled for August 22. “The Company has now received an assessment order, along with a notice of demand dated March 31, 2022, under section 156 of the Income Tax Act 1961 (Assessment Order) which provides a sum of Rs.353,36,43,465 is payable by the company. But the High Court’s order referred above means that there were no financial implications on the company at this stage and that the amount is not payable, a fact clearly acknowledged and stated by the Income Tax Department in its assessment order,” said NDTV, adding that they would challenge this new Income Tax notice in court.
NDTV also claimed that the Income Tax has miscalculated the flow of investments through bonds by “reputed foreign investors” into its foreign subsidiary NDTV Networks Plc. NDTV is already booked by CBI for floating more than 35 companies in tax havens across the world to route money from many foreign firms in dubious ways. CBI has not yet filed a charge sheet though First Information Report (FIR) was filed in August 2019. Prannoy Roy, his wife Radhika Roy, and former Managing Editor Vikram Chandra were termed as accused in the FIR. The CBI had also filed another FIR against Prannoy Roy and his wife in June 2017 for siphoning money from ICICI Bank and diverting the loan to build a home in Cape Town in South Africa. In this case, also CBI has not yet filed a charge sheet. Why these two cases are on hold? Any deal to give an escape route to Prannoy Roy by selling the shares to some preferred industrialists of the government?
Interestingly with all these charges, for the past 100 days, NDTV shares are rising high. On December 1, 2021, the NDTV share was priced at Rs.75 and in the previous week, it shot to Rs.263. How come such a price shoots high when a company and its promoters face serious cases? There are rumours in the market that the Modi government’s favourite industrialist Gautam Adani has an interest in buying NDTV, whose majority of shares were covertly held by Mukesh Ambani-linked firms from 2009.
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Looks like all are crooks, NDV case appears to be black and white, if the crooks can’t be booked, there is no hope left for us.
Difficult to get justice in India for govt is itself party to corruption.