Indian investigators launch fraud probe into leading news channel

NEW DELHI: Indian federal investigators launched a fraud probe on Monday into the founders of news channel NDTV, in a step the channel denounced as an attempt to muzzle free speech in the world’s largest democracy.

Two senior officials at the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) said it had registered a case against NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife, Radhika Roy, for causing an alleged loss of 480 million rupees ($ 7.45 million) to a bank.

The company refuted the allegations and accused the CBI of “con- certed harassment of NDTV and its promoters based on the same old endless false accusations.”

“NDTV and its promoters will fight tirelessly against this witchhunt by multiple agencies. We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India,” NDTV said in a statement.

The investigation comes at a time of often heated, polarizing debate in India’s fiercely competitive TV news industry, where channels sometimes test the boundaries of responsible journalism and prime- time talk shows are often rowdy and contentious.

Police conducted raids at Roy’s residence in New Delhi and at two vacation homes.

Neither of the couple were available for comment but NDTV presenter Srinivasan Jain said the “message is clear.”

“Any independent voices in media will be bullied and shut down. Black day,” tweeted Jain.

The CBI said the investigation had no link to the editorial line of NDTV, India’s oldest Englishlanguage all-news channel.