<p>A five-member CBI team from New Delhi descended on the official premises of the television channel on arterial Anna Salai ten minutes past midnight, informed sources here said.<br /><br />Even as police cordoned off the perimeter of the complex housing the Kalaignar TV office, the search operations lasted till about 5:30 am, sources said. The CBI is learnt to have taken possession of several documents before the probe team left for New Delhi early on Saturday. <br /><br />The CBI is investigating an alleged payment trail to this Tamil television channel, which it had hit upon during the custodial interrogation of former Telecom Minister A Raja and another accused Shahid Balwa, promoter of Mumbai-based real estate firm DB Realty. <br />The CBI had mentioned before the Special Judge in Delhi while seeking extension of their remand about a transaction of Rs 214 crore from Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd, to Kalaignar TV that was claimed to have been given as an unsecured loan by Dynamix Realty, a subsidiary of DB Realty, and the CBI had sought to further investigate these transactions. <br /><br />However, channel Managing Director Sarath Kumar Reddy had a few days ago denied that these transactions had anything to with the “2G” spectrum case. Reddy was among the company’s top officials present when CBI conducted the raids at the Kalaignar TV office. <br /><br />In fact, Reddy in a subsequent statement on Wednesday said it had nothing to hide and that its account books were open for scrutiny by the CBI and the Income-Tax (I-T) Department. Reddy had said that the amount was a loan that had been repaid with interest of Rs 31 crore to Cineyug Films. <br /><br />The TV channel’s head had also made it clear that Cineyug had initially paid that amount for picking up equity stake in the channel, but it fell through over differences about share pricing. Kalaignar TV then treated that advance as a loan and returned the money with interest. The transaction had been reported to I-T Department and tax paid, Reddy said. <br />After the raids, when Deccan Herald contacted Kalaignar TV office, there was no comment from the company till the filing of this report. <br /><br />While DMK circles are shocked by this development, in the same breath they are not unduly exercised about the raid as the CBI has to report to the Supreme Court. To that extent, the raids were not entirely unexpected. <br /><br />Kalaignar TV was launched in September 2007 when the DMK first family was convinced that the party needed to have a separate Tamil TV channel to project its point of view to the people instead of having to depend on other channels including one that was once close to their family.</p>
<p>A five-member CBI team from New Delhi descended on the official premises of the television channel on arterial Anna Salai ten minutes past midnight, informed sources here said.<br /><br />Even as police cordoned off the perimeter of the complex housing the Kalaignar TV office, the search operations lasted till about 5:30 am, sources said. The CBI is learnt to have taken possession of several documents before the probe team left for New Delhi early on Saturday. <br /><br />The CBI is investigating an alleged payment trail to this Tamil television channel, which it had hit upon during the custodial interrogation of former Telecom Minister A Raja and another accused Shahid Balwa, promoter of Mumbai-based real estate firm DB Realty. <br />The CBI had mentioned before the Special Judge in Delhi while seeking extension of their remand about a transaction of Rs 214 crore from Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd, to Kalaignar TV that was claimed to have been given as an unsecured loan by Dynamix Realty, a subsidiary of DB Realty, and the CBI had sought to further investigate these transactions. <br /><br />However, channel Managing Director Sarath Kumar Reddy had a few days ago denied that these transactions had anything to with the “2G” spectrum case. Reddy was among the company’s top officials present when CBI conducted the raids at the Kalaignar TV office. <br /><br />In fact, Reddy in a subsequent statement on Wednesday said it had nothing to hide and that its account books were open for scrutiny by the CBI and the Income-Tax (I-T) Department. Reddy had said that the amount was a loan that had been repaid with interest of Rs 31 crore to Cineyug Films. <br /><br />The TV channel’s head had also made it clear that Cineyug had initially paid that amount for picking up equity stake in the channel, but it fell through over differences about share pricing. Kalaignar TV then treated that advance as a loan and returned the money with interest. The transaction had been reported to I-T Department and tax paid, Reddy said. <br />After the raids, when Deccan Herald contacted Kalaignar TV office, there was no comment from the company till the filing of this report. <br /><br />While DMK circles are shocked by this development, in the same breath they are not unduly exercised about the raid as the CBI has to report to the Supreme Court. To that extent, the raids were not entirely unexpected. <br /><br />Kalaignar TV was launched in September 2007 when the DMK first family was convinced that the party needed to have a separate Tamil TV channel to project its point of view to the people instead of having to depend on other channels including one that was once close to their family.</p>
