A senior Doordarshan journalist has made sensational allegations against controversial news channel NDTV, saying that it had stolen tapes and equipment from Doordarshan during its initial days. Ashok Srivastav, consulting editor and senior anchor in Doordarshan, has made this explosive revelation during a panel discussion, the video of which went viral on Twitter today.
Ashok Srivastav said this during a panel discussion on the YouTube channel India Speaks Daily sometime in the past. A clip from the discussion containing the comments on NDTV were shared on Twitter by users.
Ashok Srivastava said that NDTV had stolen Doordarshan tapes and equipment to make a profit and to establish itself. He said that while NDTV used footage from tapes stolen from the public broadcaster, it had sold equipment stolen from Doordarshan. During that time, Bhaskar Ghosh had actively helped NDTV in doing so.
Sr Consulting Editor & Anchor with Doordarshan Shri Ashok Shrivastav @AshokShrivasta6 had revealed that NDTV stole Doordarshan tapes and equipment to generate revenue & build NDTV channel. Bhaskar Ghosh actively helped them do this #NDTV pic.twitter.com/e7kZuEPrZn
— Rosy (@rose_k01) July 27, 2022
Ashok Shrivastava said, “NDTV channel is created and established by stealing Doordarshan tapes, stealing Doordarshan footage, selling that footage, and by selling the equipment that belonged to Doordarshan. Bhaskar Ghosh was the Director General of Doordarshan at that time and he is the father of Sagarika Ghosh. At that time, the government gave public money to uplift this channel.”
It is worth noting that NDTV is known for its anti-BJP and anti-Hindu agenda. NDTV is often accused of partial reporting siding with anti-BJP parties. In January 2021, NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy were instructed to deposit 50 percent of the illegally earned money. The direction was issued by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).
In November 2020, SEBI found Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the promoters of the controversial media network NDTV, guilty of taking undue advantage of insider trading. Subsequently, as a penalty for the financial offense, SEBI barred them from trading in the securities market for two years. The duo was also asked to return Rs 16.97 crore earned illegally through insider trading 12 years ago.
SEBI had found that Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy traded shares of the company while holding positions in New Delhi Television Limited where they had access to sensitive information about the price. Apart from Pranay Roy and Radhika Roy, former NDTV CEO Vikramaditya Chandra, senior consultant Ishwari Prasad Bajpai, and group CFO Sourav Banerjee were also found guilty of insider trading.
As per the investigation conducted by SEBI, they violated insider trading regulations (PIT). He was accused of possessing unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) during 2007-2008, which deals with the restructuring of New India Television Ltd. SEBI had taken this step after examining the trading in the shares of the company from September 2006 to June 2008.
