Raghav Bahl engaged in dubious sale of his The Quint website to his own newly acquired firm Gaurav Mercantiles. A case of Money laundering?

Controversial media baron Raghav Bahl, who was caught for money laundering and tax evasion and stock exchange manipulation, seems to have come up with a new trick[1]. He recently acquired a little known stock exchange-listed firm Gaurav Mercantiles Limited and selling his own controversial firm Quintillion Media Private Limited, which owns the website The Quint. Is this not a trick to fool the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax which has caught Raghav Bahl for money laundering? Otherwise, why sell his company to another of his own company?

Gaurav Mercantiles Limited has informed Stock Exchanges that their Board Meeting is convened for July 17 to discuss the acquisition of Quintillion Media Private Limited, which owns the website The Quint. The Quint is fully owned by Raghav Bahl and wife Ritu Kapur.  In January, Raghav Bahl acquired more than 56.05% and wife Ritu Kapur acquired 10.37% in the little known firm Gaurav Mercantiles Limited. So in a nutshell, the husband and wife selling their old company to their new company. This is nothing but illegal round tripping when they were facing prosecution from Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate.

Another interesting aspect is that this little known Gaurav Mercantiles Ltd was traded around Rs.20 and after Raghav Bahl’s acquisition in January the share prices started shooting up and the current price is Rs.127. How come such a huge increase from Rs.20 to  Rs.127? This too has to be probed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), ED and Income Tax.

PGurus reported several articles on Raghav Bahl’s money laundering and frauds using the mask of media activities¹. This is not the first time that Bahl is caught for dubious activities in stock exchanges. His activities to rig the shares of PMC Fincorp were reported in detail[2]. Raghav Bahl’s name was also involved in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) violations involving the former corrupt Finance Minister P Chidambaram[3].

References:

[1] Enforcement Directorate charges media baron Raghav Bahl for money laundering – Jun 7, 2019, PGurus.com

[2] Tax Raids, Press Freedom or PMC Fincorp – what are you hiding Mr. Raghav Bahl? Oct 14, 2018, PGurus.com

[3] Peter Mukerjea & Raghav Bahl’s media companies bribed Karti Chidambaram for FIPB clearances in 2008 – Mar 21, 2017, PGurus.com