No raids were carried out in offices of NDTV: Naidu

07 June, New Delhi

Refuting charges that the raids by the CBI in connection with the case against NDTV founder Prannoy Roy were an assault on freedom of press, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu Wednesday said the investigating agency did not enter the premises of the news channel.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Naidu, responding to the criticism by the Editors’ Guild of India, Press Club of India and All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference that the CBI raids were an attack on freedom of the press, said, ”No raids were carried out on the offices of the channel. The raids did not affect in any way the news operations. The CBI did not enter the premises of the channel, the newsroom or TV studio or any other related offices of the media channel. ”

He dismissed the charges of vendetta levelled by the NDTV saying that ”the promoters of NDTV, Prannoy and Radhika Roy, should submit to due process of the law as there are questions on their operations that need disclosures”.

On the allegation by the Congress that the government was misusing the CBI, Mr Naidu said, “I am surprised that the Congress is talking about the misuse of CBI. My PM was grilled for eight hours during the UPA regime when he was Gujarat CM. Our party president was foisted with a false case and spent time in jail. Now these people are talking about misusing CBI.”

Earlier, in a statement yesterday, the CBI had clarified that searches have been carried out based on search warrants issued by competent court.

The CBI said it had registered the case based on the complaint of a shareholder of ICICI bank and NDTV after carrying out due diligence.