Roys are cleaning up big
As per December 30, 2022, Stock Exchange filing, founder Prannoy Roy and wife Radhika Roy sold their 27.26% shares of NDTV to Adani Group’s media firm for around Rs.605 crore. Some people who are well aware of the Gautam Adani – Prannoy Roy deal insist that the actual value of the deal is around Rs.940 crore and the balance will be paid as the premium value of shares in some other way. How that will happen is another question.
Roy fan club rejoicing
The Roys have left the NDTV building; with the new stock sale, Adani has become the owner of more than 64% of the shares in NDTV. Nowadays, Prannoy Roy’s fan club and friends are on a praise-the-lord run, while ignoring the basic fact that he violated all laws of the country in the garb of journalism and has not paid dividends to the shareholders for the past 18 years.
What is the Income Tax Dept going to do?
The Stock Exchange Regulator, SEBI’s judgment exposes all the violations of Prannoy Roy in 2009 by giving his 29% shares illegally to the Mukesh Ambani-linked firm for around Rs.500 crore. Now the millions dollar question is what is Income Tax going to do when Prannoy Roy and his wife get Rs.605 crore from Adani Group? At present Roys are facing an Income Tax due of more than Rs.800 crore.
Income Tax case details
In mid-2016, Income Tax fined Prannoy and his wife for more than Rs.800 crore. The details of tax frauds are mentioned in detail in my Book – NDTV Frauds. The book is available on Amazon and readers can get this from this link[1].
CBI cases
In the first CBI case, the First Information Report (FIR) was registered in June 2017 after raiding his home for ICICI Bank loan fraud. From the loan taken of around Rs.400 crore, CBI has all details of siphoning off more than Rs.40 crore to acquire a palatial bungalow in Cape Town, South Africa by the Roys.
In the second CBI case, the FIR was registered in August 2019 for floating 38 shell companies in tax havens across the Globe to launder money. In both of these cases, the CBI under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to register a charge sheet; except for summoning Roy and his wife to the CBI office a few times, nothing else was done. Why the inaction?
ED looking the other way?
Both the CBI cases involve money laundering. Why has the ED not jumped in? The answer is simple – Adani’s offer is needed for Prannoy Roy to buy peace and get away with the sale of his shares in NDTV and walk away laughing to the bank.
The larger question is whether this deal with Adani provides a safe escape route for Prannoy Roy and his wife, who are facing two CBI cases and a huge Income Tax fine of more than Rs.800 crore, with the ED waiting to jump on the CBI cases.
The biggest question is that all these central agencies are under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who seems to have decided to shut his eyes and keep quiet, giving the arrogant and hubris-filled Roy an escape route.
Reference:
[1] NDTV Frauds: A classic example of breaking of Law by Indian Media Houses Kindle Edition – Amazon.in
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His first book NDTV Frauds has been published and is an Amazon Bestseller.It ranked second among all eBooks that were self-published in 2017.
His second book, The Gist of GSTN which too is available on Amazon as an e-Book and as a paperback.
His third book, The Rise and Fall of AAP is also available in print version or as an e-Book on Amazon.
His fourth book, C-Company just released to rave reviews and can be bought as a print version or as an e-Book on Amazon.
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Roys must have greased the right hands within IT?