Defiant media baron vows to fight charges

Media baron Raghav Bahl, whose Quintillion Media Group was raided by the income tax department in Delhi, Noida and Bengaluru, yesterday said the government action was taken on “trumped up charges” which the company will fight legally but warned other media colleagues to be vigilant against similar “state vendetta”.

A day after his houses and office premises were raided by tax officials, he issued a statement saying “we reiterate that we are absolutely in the clear, that we shall mount a robust legal defence against every trumped-up charge that is brought against us”.

“We are making these disclosures to preempt further character assassination against us, to thwart attempts through leaks, plants, and trolls,” Bahl added, referring to the disclosures made of his property and assets in India and abroad in the statement.

He also questioned the use of private digital experts in a tax search.

“We warn our fellow news colleagues to be vigilant against similar state vendetta and end with thanking everybody who stood by us and supported us. This battle shall be fought, and not lost,” Bahl said in a joint statement issued by him, his wife Ritu Kapur and Quintillion Media Group.

“From 7.45am on Thursday to 6am yesterday, for 23 incessant hours, nearly 500 journalists and other professionals of the Quintillion Media Group, were held to the most intrusive ransom by India’s tax officers. However, we are immensely proud of our team, that gave them full access and co-operation, often pointing towards information and assets that they may have missed during their search/survey operations,” the statement read.

“But then, when we woke up after a three-hour sleep, we were astonished to see that a blatant attempt had been made by the government’s spin-masters to say that the action was part of a year-long investigation into some Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) scam, whereby Bahl and Kapur had made ‘bogus’ income of Rs1.18bn,” it said.