Just two working days after the banks allowed Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications to restructure a massive Rs 45,000 crore debt—even after Fitch (one of the big three credit rating agencies) had red-flagged it, saying its default was a ‘real possibility’— a Rs 48 crore default of a private bank loan by the promoters of NDTV has resulted in a CBI raid on their premises.
According to reports, the “default” is being investigated by the CBI’s banking fraud division, which lodged a case against NDTV’s Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika. The Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department had been into the investigation from 2014.
On June 5, the CBI raided the office and homes of the two, though the NDTV office was not raided. The office of RRPR Holding Private Ltd., the holding company of NDTV, was searched as well raids conducted in Delhi and Dehradun, media reports have said.
As per the reports, the holding company of NDTV took a loan of Rs 366 crore from ICICI Bank in 2008, reportedly on personal guarantees of the promoters. They settled for Rs 48 crore less than the amount to be paid back.
NDTV, a company listed on the BSE, lost 6.74 per cent, hitting a 52-week low of Rs 58.10.
Days prior to that, Anil Ambani had told his stakeholders and debtors that he had been given time till December 31 to complete two deals that will presumably bring him out of a debt trap. He has failed to service debt of more than 10 lenders.
—India Legal Bureau