Congress-backed news channel in Kerala says its bank accounts frozen by tax authorities
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The management of Congress-backed Jaihind TV in Kerala on Saturday alleged that its bank accounts were frozen by the Centre, a day after the national party's main bank accounts were frozen by the I-T department over an outstanding tax demand.
According to sources in the TV channel, the office of the Assistant Commissioner, Central GST and Central Excise in Thiruvananthapuram issued notices to two leading private banks, directing them to recover the amount due to the central government from the news channel's parent company, Bharat Broadcasting Company, leading to the freeze of its accounts.
Jaihind TV was recently in the news after the CBI issued a notice seeking details of the investments made in the channel by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar in connection with a disproportionate assets case against the Congress leader.
The channel's Managing Director B S Shiju said the action of the tax authorities was completely 'unexpected', and that too while the case related to it was pending in the High Court.
"This abrupt action is indeed unfortunate and has plunged the channel into a state of crisis," he said.
Shiju said the channel, on December 22 last year, received a notice seeking details of an investment made by Shivakumar and his family members in it.
"We are fully cooperating with the investigating agency in that regard. But unfortunately, after this, we received half a dozen notices from various central government departments and agencies. It is evident that this is a clear case of political vendetta against the Indian National Congress and D K Shivakumar," Shiju, who is also a Congress leader, told PTI.
Sources in Jaihind TV said the freezing of the accounts was in connection with a 7-year-old case concerning service tax arrears, which is currently being heard by the Kerala High Court.
They also claimed that the action was taken without any warning, disrupting the channel's day-to-day operations.
The CBI registered a case against D K Shivakumar in 2020, alleging that between 2013 and 2018, he had amassed assets worth over Rs 74 crore, which are allegedly disproportionate to his income.
In its notice issued under Section 91 of the CrPC, the CBI had asked the channel to furnish details of investments made by Shivakumar and is wife Usha Shivakumar, dividends paid to them, share transactions, financial transactions along with bank details through which they were made, statement of holdings, their ledger accounts, contract notes and transactions for all share transactions among other details.
On Friday, the Congress' main bank accounts were frozen over an income tax demand of Rs 210 crore but an I-T appellate tribunal later allowed it to operate them pending a further hearing next week, a huge relief for the party which said the move had impacted all political activity.
The accounts, including that of the Indian Youth Congress, were frozen on an Income Tax demand of Rs 210 crore for 2018-19, an election year, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
