The fight between BJP MP Subramanian Swamy and NDTV founder-promoter Prannoy Roy seems to be heating up. Prannoy Roy had earlier written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to drop the CBI investigations into financial frauds of NDTV ‘to promote press freedom’. Roy suggested that investigations were prejudiced by Swamy’s allegations. CBI had earlier raided the NDTV promoters’ residences earlier in June 2017.
Now the fight has gone a step further with Swamy asking for a lookout notice against Prannoy Roy, because Swamy believes that Roy could escape to South Africa. This explosive claim by Swamy comes after India has seen defaulters like Vijay Mallya and now Nirav Modi being outside India while being accused of financial fraud.
Swamy made this allegation on Twitter, which was interestingly re-tweeted by Prannoy Roy himself within minutes. Not only Roy re-tweeted Swamy, he even called him a liar in a subsequent tweet:
Interestingly, this is for the first time Prannoy Roy has directly responded on Twitter to any message by Subramanian Swamy about himself or NDTV.
The allegations of Prannoy Roy having properties in South Africa are not new. An income tax officer S K Srivastav, whom NDTV had branded as ‘biased‘, had claimed that Roy had a ranch in South Africa. The same can be heard in the video clip below [between 0:45 and 0:55 minutes]:
Social activist Madhu Kishwar too had earlier – weeks before Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister – suggested that Prannoy Roy could escape to South Africa if Sonia Gandhi’s family goes out of power i.e. if Congress loses the 2014 elections and Modi wins (which did happen):
Reliable info: NDTV Prannoy Roy has bought ranch in Cape Town to escape Indian laws in case The Family goes out of power& Modi comes in 1\n
— MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) March 25, 2014
Whether Roy has a ranch in South Africa or any plans to escape to South Africa is just a matter of speculation and allegation right now, but Swamy surely has brought the issue back in focus. We will have to wait and watch as to how this fight and case will progress in coming days.
