IT department raids media baron Raghav Bahl's residence and 'The Quint' office in Noida
Income Tax department Thursday searched and raided the premises of Raghav Bahl’s residence in connection with a case of tax evasion, officials said.
They said a team of officers raided the residence of Bahl in neighbouring Noida early morning and were searching for documents and other evidence related to the case which is still under probe.
In a written message to the Editor’s Guild body, Raghav Bhal said he was in Mumbai this morning when IT officials arrived at his residence and The Quint’s office for a “survey”.
Raghav Bahl is the founder of The Quint news portal and the Network 18 group, which was later sold to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited. He is known as a media baron and entrepreneur.
IT raids at @TheQuint founder Raghav Bahl premises at Noida: Sources
— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) October 11, 2018
Here’s the full text of Bahl’s statement to the Guild:
I have a matter of great concern to share with the Guild. While I was in Mumbai this morning, dozens of IT officials descended on my residence and The Quint’s office for a “survey”. We are a fully tax compliant entity, and will provide all access to all appropriate financial documents. However, I have just spoken to the officer on my premises, one Mr Yadav, and requested him, strongly, to not try and pick up or see any other mail/document which is likely to contain very serious/sensitive journalistic material. If they do that, then we shall seek extremely strong recourse. I do hope the EG will back us on this, and thereby set a precedent for any such exercise that may happen on any other journalistic entity in the future. They should also not misuse their smartphones to take unauthorised copies of this material.
I am now on my way back to Delhi.
Warm regards. Raghav
