Opposition leaders had cited a video released by TNN World to allege demonetisation fraud by BJP workers in the run up to the Lok Sabha election. (Photo: PTI)

The Romanian director of TNN World, the UK-based news portal which ran undercover stories slamming India's demonetisation and EVMs ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, has resigned from her erotic massage company, months after the portal was exposed by India Today’s Open Source Investigation.

Diana Biciin’s resignation as director of Eva’s Tantric Massages Limited had come two days after she dismissed India Today’s report as false propaganda.

The parent company behind the news portal TNN (standing for Tri Colour News Network Ltd) World has also formally applied for dissolution. Earlier, an India Today Open Source Investigation (OSINT) had revealed that the director of UK-based news portal TNN World, which had claimed rigging of electronic voting machines (EVMs), had opened an erotic massage services company in London. The probe had revealed that the Dina had switched the business model -- from a global news platform to a sensual massage service.

Opposition party leaders in India, which included Congress leader Kapil Sibal, had held multiple press conferences based on TNN reports in connection with EVM rigging and money laundering.

The investigation

On June 27, India Today investigation found that the UK-based news portal had gone offline with its sole director Diana Irina Biciin assuming the directorship of a London-based company Eva’s Tantric Massage (ETM), which offered erotic massage services in London.

In response to the India Today investigation, Biciin issued a statement claiming that the TNN portal was under a cyber attack. It is factually incorrect and false propaganda that TNN has anything to do with erotic massages etc as claimed by India Today, Biciin had said in a statement on June 28.

In the latest development, fresh corporate filings made on the behalf of Biciin and her company before UK authorities have revealed that merely two days after Biciin termed the India Today investigation false propaganda, her directorship from the ETM was terminated.

The company, however, reported this development to the UK authorities last week through official filings in the UK.

In another development, the parent company behind TNN news portal, Tricolour News Network Ltd, has also filed an application of dissolution.

Romanian national Diana Biciin was the only director holding majority shares in Tricolour News Network Ltd. The news portal has been offline for over four months and despite cyber attack claims, the portal hasn’t come back online.

Diana Biciin’s Facebook profile describes her as director of operations at TNN World while official records show that Biciin held more than 75% shares in Tricolour News Network Ltd.

TNN came into the spotlight after it published reports alleging massive irregularities during the Lok Sabha elections. Opposition leaders, including former Union ministers Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sharad Yadav, Ahmed Patel of the Congress, Hemant Soren of the JMM and Manoj Jha of the RJD, had addressed a joint press conference in New Delhi, showing a purported sting operation carried out by TNN World.

Sibal carried on with two more press conferences based on TNN stories, one of which claimed that the BJP's top leadership ran a money-exchange operation with the help of officials from 26 different departments, including India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). TNN World described itself as "an independent, UK-based news publisher".

Also read | UK's anti-BJP portal goes offline, owner logs into erotic massage domain