Tax men search Dainik Bhaskar offices at 30 places

Wednesday 28th July 2021 06:50 EDT
 
 

In a major action, income tax (I-T) officials last week conducted searches on 30 premises across several cities, including Indore, Bhopal, Jaipur, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Korba and Ahmedabad, against the Bhaskar media group and its promoters in the Panama paper leak case.

The action sparked protests from the opposition and media bodies, which called it an attack on press freedom. The Bhaskar Group dubbed the action as a retaliation against its aggressive coverage of the pandemic. Government sources, however, refuted the charge, and said the searches were part of a probe into the alleged round-tripping by the Bhaskar Group, which has interests in other sectors, besides media.

The three Agarwal brothers - Sudhir, Pawan and Girish - are promoters of the Bhaskar Group and control media conglomerate DB Corp Ltd, which has diverse investments in power, textile and real estate with a turnover of around £600 million. The flagship DB Corp controls at least 100 companies where the I-T department has alleged large-scale tax evasion and round-tripping of investments through the Mauritius route. Several shell companies controlled by the group allegedly have employees of the company as shareholders and directors.

Government sources claimed that the DB Group has figured in the 2016 Panama paper disclosure case, which is being probed by a multi-agency group (MAG) consisting of the I-T department, Enforcement Directorate, Financial Intelligence Unit and the RBI.

A statement released by the Bhaskar Group said that I-T raids were conducted on its premises in MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra for its aggressive journalism. Laptops and mobile phones of its editorial and digital staff were seized despite these persons having nothing to do with financial transactions of the company, and they were detained illegally. News updates suffered for several hours, it said.

The opposition also linked the I-T action to the media group's reporting on alleged under-counting of Covid deaths and the matter was raised in the Rajya Sabha by former MP CM Digvijaya Singh. Thereafter, several opposition leaders and parties condemned the action against Dainik Bhaskar.

Answering a question as to whether the IT action was an attack on journalism, information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said the agencies were working without any interference of the government and added it would be a folly to reach conclusions on the basis of incomplete information. The Panama paper leaks had mention of over 400 Indian entities but the multi-agency enquiries later found only 146 cases were “actionable” in which the government has so far unearthed undisclosed income of more than £2 billion.

While no official statements have been made by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the apex cadre controlling I-T authority, on the searches on the two media groups, government sources alleged that people from the Bhaskar Group were involved in alleged round-tripping of investments.


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