india

Updated: Oct 05, 2019 17:48 IST

The Hyderabad police on Saturday arrested V Ravi Prakash, former chief executive officer of popular television channel TV9, in connection with alleged siphoning off Rs 18.31 crore from Associated Broadcasting Company Limited (ABCL), which runs the channel.

The arrest followed a complaint lodged by the new management of ABCL with the Banjara Hills police on Friday evening. “A case was registered against Ravi Prakash under various sections of Indian Penal Code, including cheating and criminal breach of trust,” a police official familiar with the development said.

It may be mentioned that Alanda Media and Entertainment Private Limited, promoted by real estate major My Home Group and infrastructure giant Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) acquired 90.54 per cent of the shares in the ABCL on August 27, 2018.

Ravi Prakash, who owns a minor stake in the company, was sacked from the post of CEO and also as director on May 10.

In the latest complaint lodged with the police, a representative of the ABCL management alleged that Ravi Prakash and his associate M K V N Murthy had drawn huge sums from the bank accounts of the company without substantiating any entitlement under law and without board approval.

“This amounts to cheating, gross misappropriation of funds, causing wrongful loss to the company and thereby getting personal benefit at the cost of the company,” he said.

He recalled that during the verification of records and account statements since June 2019 by new board of directors, it was revealed that Ravi Prakash had fraudulently diverted Rs 6.36 crore into his account and another Rs 5.97 crore each into the accounts of other directors Murthy and Clifford Pereira.

“Thus, three of them had drawn Rs 18.31 crore. As per the bank statement, they got a net amount of Rs 11.74 crore, after deducting tax at source. The cheques for the payment of this amount were signed by Ravi Prakash and Murthy, who were then authorised signatories, though they were not entitled to receive such huge amounts without obtaining approval of the shareholders/Directors,” the management representative said in the complaint.

He further alleged that Ravi Prakash and Murthy had shown the amount as bonus/ex gratia by producing ante-dated documents. “We have also come to know that they advised the accounts team to record these amounts on account of bonus/ex gratia to them without conducting a proper board meeting or taking the approval in the general body meeting of shareholders of the company,” the ABCL representative said.