Image Courtesy:newsnasha.com
The Income Tax department is reported to be conducting raids on at the Dainik Bhaskar group’s premises across the country, stated multiple breaking news reports on Thursday, June 22. The raids have been going on since early morning at the media groups premises in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. However, while no official statement has been issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) yet Indian Express, and other media reported that tax officials have confirmed that these searches are now underway. Dainik Bhaskar is one of the largest newspaper groups in the country, and has been read widely for its extensive on ground coverage during the Covid-19 second wave. Its reporters covered the massive death toll across the country, and were one of the few media groups reporting from smaller towns and cities.
Soon after the issue of deaths due to due to acute shortage of oxygen in the second wave was raised in the Rajya Sabha and Health and Family Welfare Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya said no “reports of patients dying due to shortage of oxygen and lack of hospital facilities in the country have been received by the Ministry from any State/UT”, the Dainik Bhaskar once again put out its reports online testifying to death due to lack of oxygen in at least five cities in Madhya Pradesh alone.
ऑक्सीजन की कमी से मौत का सच: दूसरी लहर के दौरान भास्कर डिजिटल पर आईं ऐसी 5 खबरें, जो खुद ऑक्सीजन की कमी से मौत की गवाही दे रहीं हैंhttps://t.co/AJOmi8ahoy #oxygen #OxygenShortage #CoronaSecondWave
— Dainik Bhaskar (@DainikBhaskar) July 21, 2021
Over the next two days, Dainik Bhaskar’s social media handle continued to put out a series of its archival reports that showed a mirror to the Union Government’s claims of no deaths due to lack of oxygen during the second wave. It has also been following and reporting on the Pegasus spyware scandal as well over the past few days.
पेगासस जाजूसी लिस्ट में शामिल पत्रकार बोले: सिर्फ सफाई देने से काम नहीं चलेगा, जब हम अपराधी और देशद्रोही नहीं है तो सरकार बताए कि किसके इशारे पर जासूसी हो रही थीhttps://t.co/q8fbJl6Sw0 @sandhyadwivedi1 #Pegasus #PegasusSpyware
— Dainik Bhaskar (@DainikBhaskar) July 21, 2021
Hours after its continued reportage on the two issues was amplified on social media as well, news of the raids by the Income Tax Department started flowing in on various media handles and groups. According to some reports the allegations against the media group include alleged tax evasion. At some of the cities, the searches are also being conducted in connection with a tax evasion case, at multiple locations including Promoters’ residences and offices.
The newspaper had also reported that over two thousand bodies had been found on the banks of the Ganga river, its team had reported from 27 districts, spanning 1140 kms in Uttar Pradesh. The report had flagged that the situation was the worse in Kanpur, Unnao, Ghazipur and Ballia. Both these reports had got international attention and were followed up by all media outlets in India, and many leading ones abroad.
The paper’s Bhopal edition had also been one of the first to publish an aerial photograph, taken via a drone, of scores of funeral pyres being lit at Bhadbhada Ghat, the city’s largest crematorium, reported NewsLaundry in an analysis of the group’s coverage. The DB had headlined the story thus: “Government data on deaths is a lie, these burning pyres are telling the truth.” htt
image from newslaundry
A few days before that in Gujarat, the Divya Bhaskar called out state BJP president, CR Patil, claiming to give 5,000 remdesivir vials for free to Covid patients when the state, and the country was facing a shortage of the drug. The newspaper made his phone number public after the Chief minister Vijay Rupani told the media ‘to to ask Patil’ when questioned how such a large quantity of the drug was available with the politician when the public was struggling for it. The front page went viral.
image from social media
The raids on the media group have evoked strong reactions from beyond the media fraternity. Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh tweeted that this was “just the beginning. They would go more vindictive as opposition grows Nationally. All should get together to condemn it and fight the ModiShah duo at every level.”
पत्रकारिता पर मोदीशाह का प्रहार!! मोदीशाह का एक मात्र हथियार IT ED CBI!
मुझे विश्वास है अग्रवाल बंधु डरेंगे नहीं।दैनिक भास्कर के विभिन्न ठिकानों पर इनकम टैक्स इन्वेस्टिगेशन विंग की छापामार कार्रवाई शुरू…
प्रेस कॉन्प्लेक्स सहित आधा दर्जन स्थानों पर मौजूद है इनकम टैक्स की टीम
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) July 22, 2021
Dainik Bhaskar is raided by IT Dept soon after they expose Modi Govt on Covid deaths & snooping on Opp, Judges, EC, Journalists and Activists by spyware #Pegasus.
How brazen will the Govt become? The stifling of Democracy & rights today are definitely worse than during Emergency pic.twitter.com/HaLcG88Xfo— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) July 22, 2021
Income Tax raids on Bharat Samachar news channel too
Income Tax raids are also being conducted at the offices of Uttar Pradesh based news channel Bharat Samachar. According to the channel its Editor-in-Chief Brijesh Mishra’s house has been raided, as has the home of its state head Virendra Singh. These raids too bagan on Thursday morning the channel tweeted. Editor-in-Chief Brijesh Mishra told his team that the media had a Constitutional right to raise questions and that the channel is not going to be intimidated by such actions.
➡यूपी के प्रतिष्ठित न्यूज चैनल पर IT का छापा
➡भारत समाचार के दफ्तर पर आईटी का छापा
➡एडिटर इन चीफ बृजेश मिश्रा के घर पर छापा
➡स्टेट हेड वीरेंद्र सिंह के घर पर भी IT की रेड
➡भारत समाचार के कर्मचारियों के घर पर छापा
➡सुबह से इनकम टैक्स टीम कर रही छापेमारी। pic.twitter.com/n7sPeCXNKA
— भारत समाचार (@bstvlive) July 22, 2021
#BharatSamachar pic.twitter.com/6VSCfqvcFM
— NDTV (@ndtv) July 22, 2021
Related
From newsrooms to courtrooms
Press Freedom in India – 2021: A half-yearly report
Pegasus spyware trotting into ministers’ phones, who is next?