IT raids at multiple premises of Dainik Bhaskar, Opposition targets govt

The Income Tax Department on Thursday conducted raids against the media group Dainik Bhaskar in multiple cities over alleged tax evasion, officials said. The searches were conducted across several locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.

The newspaper in a series of tweets has denounced the raids and accused the Centre of creating pressure on them because their coverage of the Covid pandemic was critical of the govt. They also said they will continue to their independent reporting

Meanwhile, Bharat Samachar TV, another news channel, said on its official Twitter handle that the I-T dept was conducting searches at the “house of its Editor-in-chief Brajesh Mishra, state head Virendra Singh, houses of some employees and the channel office.”

There has been no statement from the Income Tax Department yet.

Opposition parties have lashed out at the govt for targeting the country's free press.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called the raids on Dainik Bhaskar a “brutle attempt to stifle democracy.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called the raids an “attempt to scare the media.”

Criticising the BJP, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot termed the raids as an effort to “stifle the media.”

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has rubbished these allegations and said that the agencies our doing their own job, there is no interference from the govt.