New Delhi: tax raids happened at offices of the media group Dainik Bhaskar and an Uttar Pradesh-based news channel this morning. The Danik Bhaskar group has been accused of evasion , sources said.
Taxmen searched 35 locations of Dainik Bhaskar in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The homes and offices of the group’s promoters were also raided, press agency ANI said, quoting sources.
A senior editor of Dainik Bhaskar told NDTV that raids were on at the group’s Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Indore offices.
An Uttar Pradesh channel , Bharat Samachar, was also raided. An tax team searched the Lucknow office and also the editor’s home to look at tax documents, consistent with sources.
The sources claimed the raids were supported “conclusive evidence of tax fraud” by the channel. Bharat Samachar’s recent reporting has been critical of the UP government.
The opposition alleged that the raids were linked to reports on Covid “mismanagement” by the govt . “Through its reporting Dainik Bhaskar has exposed the Modi regime’s monumental mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. it’s now paying the worth . An Undeclared Emergency as Arun Shourie has said – this is often a Modified Emergency,” tweeted Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
One of the most important newspaper groups within the country, the Dainik Bhaskar was at the forefront of reporting on the size of devastation within the second wave of Covid in April-May.
Dainik Bhaskar put out a series of reports that took a critical check out official claims during the pandemic as raging infections left people desperate for oxygen, hospital beds and vaccine.
Its reportage exposed the grisly sight of bodies of Covid victims floating within the river Ganga and washing abreast of the banks of towns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, possibly discarded due to the shortage of means to cremate them. The reports also revealed bodies buried in shallow graves by the river in UP.
The ny Times had, a month ago, published Dainik Bhaskar editor Om Gaur’s op-ed on Covid deaths in India, titled: “The Ganges Is Returning the Dead. It doesn’t Lie.” The opinion piece was extremely critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus peak. The holiest of India’s rivers “became Exhibit A for the Modi administration’s failures and deceptions”, he wrote.
