[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]he Income Tax Department (IT) has caught NDTV promoter Prannoy Roy siphoning Rs.53.84 crores ($8 million) into his personal account. The IT has unearthed this fraud by Roy in June 2016 and shared the details with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW). This looting of Stock Exchange listed company NDTV’s funds into personal account by Roy is a clear violation of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which envisages a jail term of three to seven years and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) like criminal conspiracy and fraud.

The husband and wife team have 50 percent shares in this shell company, which controls NDTV and Income Tax & ED has already unearthed several frauds in cheating shareholders and investors.

The IT’s sensitive report to ED and EOW shows that the money was siphoned to the personal account of Prannoy Roy, who has a penchant for preaching ethics and morality for the past 25 years. An amount of Rs.53,84,60,960($8 million) was shifted from RRPR Holdings through a cheque number 84219 of Syndicate Bank (Hauz Khas Branch, Delhi) Account No: 10006971 to Prannoy Roy’s account.

The money came to the shell company RRPR (Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy) Holdings on March 8, 2010 from Reliance Group linked company VCPL for increasing the shareholding in NDTV from 26% to 29.19%. The husband and wife team have 50 percent shares in this shell company, which controls NDTV and Income Tax & ED has already unearthed several frauds in cheating shareholders and investors. PGurus have published a detailed article in this regard.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]I[/dropcap]T also unearthed that on the same day in the Stock Exchange there were around Rs.134 crores ($20 million) worth transactions done at a price variation of 98%. The IT department found that these bogus gains were done to benefit the main promoters Mr and Mrs. Roy. The question that is on everyone’s lips is when the Government is going to act against this instance of blatant Stock Exchange rigging.

So what is preventing Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate, SEBI and Delhi Police EOW from acting against the blatant fraud and money laundering committed by Prannoy Roy?

The department informed the counterparts in ED and EOW that the transfer money of Rs.53.84 crore to Prannoy Roy’s personal is nothing but embezzlement of funds and proceeds of Stock Exchange manipulations and amounts to money laundering and cheating of shareholders.