I-T dept raids Dainik Bhaskar’s premises
PremiumThe income tax department on Thursday conducted raids at the premises of Dainik Bhaskar Group across the country in a suspected tax evasion case
NEW DELHI : The income tax department on Thursday conducted raids at the premises of Dainik Bhaskar Group across the country in a suspected tax evasion case, prompting the company and opposition politicians to allege that this was motivated by critical coverage of the government’s management of the covid-19 pandemic.
Searches were conducted in Bhopal, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and several places in Maharashtra.
The IT teams also raided a regional news channel, Bharat Samachar, based in Lucknow, and premises of its state head Virendra Singh and editor-in-chief Brajesh Mishra.
Opposition parties alleged that the raids were an attack on journalism and were being done to scare the journalists. Raids on Dainik Bhaskar were carried out for its reportage on covid-19 mismanagement by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the second wave in April and May, they said.
“Through its reporting, Dainik Bhaskar has exposed the Modi regime’s monumental mismanagement of the covid-19 pandemic. It is now paying the price. An Undeclared Emergency as (former Union minister) Arun Shourie has said—this is a Modified Emergency," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
There was no official statement from the Dainik Bhaskar group, but it ran a lead story on its website saying “the government is scared of true journalism".
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