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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun a money laundering investigation against TV channel NDTV in connection with some foreign funds received by it in the past, an ED official said on Thursday.
The probe has been initiated under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the official said, adding it is related to the ED’s investigations in connection with “foreign funding” transactions of the entity.
More details about the exact charges being probed by the agency were not available as the official said the case is sub-judice.
The NDTV, meanwhile, alleged “intimidation of epic proportions” by central probe agencies in the last 24 hours.
It said the three central agencies – the CBI, the ED and the Income Tax Department are “attacking NDTV over one transaction in which GE, USA, made a $150 million investment in NDTV – perfectly legitimate and publicly, officially declared investment-which they are calling a ‘sham transaction’”.
The statement also mentioned,
The channel said the CBI is indulging in an "undisguised fishing expedition" and it has sent a letter” demanding documents from the NDTV and its subsidiaries for an unspecified period- this despite NDTV having supplied more than 500 pages of documents only two weeks ago.
The statement pointed out that it was “strange” for the CBI to not acknowledge the receipts of these documents.
The CBI, last month, had searched the residence of NDTV founder Prannoy Roy here after registering an FIR for causing an alleged loss of Rs 48 crore to ICICI Bank in a loan resettlement in 2009 and concealing from the SEBI and stock exchanges the pledging of shares for the loan.
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