Withdrawal of petitions is admission of fraud

NDTV on Monday admitted its illegalities and wrongs committed including insider trading and decided to settle the cases by adjudication and withdrawing frivolous appeals and counter cases related to violation of Stock Exchange norms. This admission of guilt is informed to Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) on a letter dated March 6 by NDTV. Is this is clever ploy to save from the related cases registered by Enforcement Directorate (ED)?

The letter submitted to the Stock Exchanges starts: “We wish to inform you that today the Board of Directors, in the interest of all the shareholders of the Company, saving of time, cost and to quickly close the matter to avoid protracted litigation, had approved to” with draw the cases filed in Delhi High Court and National Company Law Tribunal regarding the fudging of Rs.155.73 crores ($23.4 million) in the balance sheets.

The other cases NDTV decided to settle or plead guilty are paying the SEBI a fine of Rs.2 crores ($0.3 million) for hiding the Income Tax demand of Rs.450 crores ($67.5 million). SEBI had issued notice to Prannoy Roy, wife Radhika Roy, CEO KVL Narayan Rao and Managing Editor Vikram Chandra for various offences including hiding of information, including non-disclosure of sale of shares, involving charges of insider trading.

This letter to Stock Exchanges is a clear admission of guilt by the TV channel and invites the provisions of registering cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A few days ago, NDTV received a big setback as the RBI rejected their move to compound the FEMA Notice of Rs.2030 crore.

Apart from these huge fines involving serious financial implications, NDTV has been slapped Rs.525 crores ($78.8 million) fine by Income Tax. These developments will block Prannoy Roy’s attempt to sell the channel, as Income Tax has already blocked the sale of his and wife’s shares. In short, NDTV’s is facing a serious crisis and people in Delhi have started whispering about the slow shifting of Mr. and Mrs. Roy to park themselves in their palatial home in South Africa.