Lies of Prannoy Roy of NDTV exposed. Never appeared before Income Tax and now cries of victimhood

NDTV’s promoter Prannoy Roy is proving to be a master of lies and an expert in claiming victimhood after committing tax evasion, money laundering, bank frauds and stock market rigging. The recent 74-page Income Tax order dated January 31, 2018, imposing more than Rs.436 crores as penalty says that Prannoy Roy never appeared before Income Tax and sent staffers as scapegoats before the Assessing Officers (AO).

With this Rs.436 crores penalty, the scam-ridden NDTV channel is now facing a total income tax dues of more than Rs.860 crores and this could be the reason why Spice Jet owner Ajay Singh ran away from the takeover talks.

The previous week, NDTV withdrew their petition from the Delhi High Court (HC) against the Income Tax penalty after the Judges reiterated that the TV channel should go to the proper forums, rather rushing to the HC directly.

“Dr. Prannoy Roy who being the head of the organization was expected to know every detail of the transaction chose not to appear before this office in spite of repeated summons issued to him,” says the Income Tax Order at Page No: 71 imposing a penalty of Rs.436,80,1876 for the tax evasion and routing money from tax havens in 2009-2010.

The Income Tax has given five opportunities for Prannoy Roy to explain his version and till date, he has not appeared before the investigators even once.

The Prannoy Roy who lied in the Press Club meeting before journalists that “he and his wife did not touch black money in their life” preferred to put the blame on BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “witch-hunting.” But that fact was that the first probe on money laundering and bank frauds started in 2011 when Pranab Mukherjee was the Finance Minister. Prannoy Roy was successful in stopping all probes when the corrupt P Chidambaram returned to Finance Ministry in 2012 and the Income Tax Commissioner S K Srivastava was hunted down.

With this Rs.436 crores penalty, the scam-ridden NDTV channel is now facing a total income tax dues of more than Rs.860 crores and this could be the reason why Spice Jet owner Ajay Singh ran away from the takeover talks.  The Income Tax has given five opportunities for Prannoy Roy to explain his version and he never appeared before the investigators.

In the page number 73, Income Tax clearly says, “The assessee company (NDTV) has deliberately avoided giving reply on merits in the penalty proceedings and has exhibited non-compliance throughout the penalty proceedings on one pretext or the other. Even the opportunity for cross-examination which was much requested by the assessee earlier was decided to be foregone by the assessee at the last moment. Dr. Prannoy Roy who was repeatedly issued summons chose not to appear and did not avail of this opportunity of deposing anything which he knew to be in favor of the assessee company,” said the Income Tax order.

Within days of being slapped a penalty of Rs.436 crores, Prannoy Roy wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi that BJP leader Subramanian Swamy is behind all the actions behind Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate[1]. He also blamed right-wing ideologue Gurumurthy for his woes. Now Prannoy Roy quotes Washington Post, wrongly reporting that the Modi government is behind the actions of the tax sleuths against NDTV.

The HC on February 16, rejected NDTV’s petition against Income Tax and the TV channel had withdrawn its petition sensing the mood. The two-page order of the High Court says: “After some hearing counsel for the writ petitioner (NDTV) seeks liberty to withdraw the present writ petition and states that the impugned penalty order would be challenged in appeal… An apprehension was expressed that the respondents (Income Tax) would reject the application and immediately thereafter coercive steps for recovery, attachment of bank accounts etc would be taken. Counsel for the respondents contest that the said submission and states that apprehension of the petition are unfounded,” said the HC Order rejecting NDTV’s allegations.

References:

[1] Did Jeff Immelt and Zucker create the shell companies at NDTV? Feb 13, 2018, PGurus.com