NDTV has been on antagonistic terms with its former consultant Sanjay Dutt, who has accused Prannoy and Radhika Roy, and written to the RBI about the Rs 375 crore loaned to NDTV and the conditions under which the loan was settled.
In its official statement after the CBI conducted a raid at the offices and residences of the NDTV promoters, NDTV accused the "disgruntled former consultant" of NDTV Sanjay Dutt of making false allegations.
Who Is Sanjay Dutt?
Dutt was educated at the Doon School in Dehradun between 1977 to 1983. He then went to study at IIM Ahmedabad.
Sanjay Dutt, the director of Quantum Securities, was hired by NDTV as Financial Consultant/Advisor for some corporate restructuring.
Quantum Securities offered brokerage services to private investors, corporates and institutions. According to its website, Dutt has been with the firm since 1994.
Sanjay Dutt is registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs and has served as a director for nine companies according to the MCA.
Sanjay Dutt’s Run-in With the Law
As per a PTI report, Dutt had a run-in with the law himself in 2013, when his brokerage firm Quantum Service paid Rs 33.41 lakh, and he had to pay a sum of Rs 15 lakh to SEBI to settle charges against himself and his firm.
The charges related to SEBI's probe into the share trading of GHCL.
Quoting SEBI’s charges against Dutt, PTI reported that Quantum Securities had allegedly entered “cross and synchronised” deals on behalf of its clients and had “aided and abetted” in creating artificial volumes in GHCL’s scrips during the period being investigated, and that it was alleged that the firm had taken third-party delivery of shares.
Read the full document on the allegations against Dutt here.
NDTV’s Tiff With Sanjay Dutt
Dutt has harboured a long relationship with NDTV and was also a minority stakeholder, owning around 1 percent shares in the company.
According to Business Standard, Dutt wrote to almost every regulatory authority in India accusing the Roys of violating a number of laws.
In 2013, Dutt wrote to almost every regulatory authority in India alleging that Roy and his wife violated a number of laws and received irregular promoter funding of Rs 375 crore through RRPR Holdings, which is against Reserve Bank rules.
NDTV had sent a legal notice to Dutt accusing him of making defamatory statements and “launching a tirade” against the media house.
In 2016, based on a complaint filed by Dutt, the IT department served a tax notice to RRPR Holding, alleging that the loan agreement with VCPL was a “colourable device, designed to evade tax” and the transactions between Roys and RRPR were “colourable transactions”.
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