I-T dept and ED join probe against NDTV promoters

The Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate have also joined the probe into the complaint against NDTV founder Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika after the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case against them for laundering benami funds in favour of a party to get covert control of the news channel.

An ED official said the preliminary probe revealed that NDTV, which had only two subsidiaries in India in 2006, later floated and operated more than 30 paper companies including shell companies in five countries including Mauritius.

“These companies had no real business and no employees. They were set up to launder unaccounted money,” the official said. The assessment of unexplained funds is in progress, the official added.

The ED, which has issued show cause notices to the NDTV Group for contravention of the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, is also probing certain financial transactions of the media group under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.