Cuttack: EOW of the Crime Branch today carried out a raid at Editor of an Odia news channel in the Bhubaneswar over allegations of duping a Delhi-based businessman of around Rs 90 lakh.
According to reports, the businessman has filed a complaint with the EOW against Editor of ‘Bada Khabar’ TV news channel, Ardhendu Das. The EOW had served Das notice to depose before the agency.
The complainant Gagandeep Singh Chawla, proprietor of Solution Broadcast company, alleged that Das had purchased equipment to setup a news channel in 2020. A deal of over Rs 1 crore was finalised between the them and Das paid Chawla some amount in advance.
Chawla, in his complaint stated that Das did not pay the remaining amount. Based on this complaint, the EOW registered a case and initiated an investigation.
Das, on the other hand has dismissed the allegations saying that the equipment sold by Chawla were not standard and unusable for broadcast purposes.
He added that most of the costly hardware and software provided by Chawla has been returned.
Today evening, Das said that he was ‘shocked’ with the EOW raids. According to Das, he and his lawyer had responded to the agency to appear after Rath Yatra. Despite this, the raids were shocking as he was not in Bhubaneswar,” Das said.
Das’ lawyer Janmanjay Ray said, it is a commercial deal, between the TV channel and the company where one is a consumer and the other is a seller. This is beyond the jurisdiction of the EOW as it is a purely civil/commercial dispute, he said.
“In this case, the seller has come to Odisha and filed a complaint with EOW. How is this an economic offence? Some Sections of the IPC mentioned in the FIR, such as Criminal conspiracy and Criminal breach of trust, how can the deal attrach such penal provisions,” Ray said.
On the other hand, a Cuttack-based businessman has lodged a complaint with Purighat police against Das. According to the complaint, the businessman is yet to receive a pending payment of around Rs 6 lakh from Das for plywood purchased in October 2020.
