New Delhi: Amid a raging debate on media independence and efforts to muzzle the press freedom, the Income Tax department has issued a detailed statement on Saturday evening claiming that the "quantum of income escapement" could be more than Rs 700 crore spread over a period of six years.
"....the quantum may be more as the group has used multiple layers and investigations are being carried out to unravel the entire money trail," the IT department said.
"During the search, it was found that they have been operating several companies in the names of their employees, which have been used for booking bogus expenses and routing of funds... Several of the employees, whose names were used as shareholders and directors, have admitted that they were not aware of such companies," the statement said.
Commencing Thursday, July 22, the Income Tax Department conducted searches at the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar Group and also premises of its promoters across 32 locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The media group had, however, claimed that searches were the result of its aggressive journalism during the second wave of Covid19.
In fact, there are related debates and on more serious dimensions.
Firstly, garnering profit should not be regarded as an act of guilt. Newspaper owners and TV channel houses should not be expected to run some charitable trust. This would be also self-defeating in terms of bringing improvement in the industry, that is the media per se.
This point is asserted in reference to all media. But what has been reported about Dainik Bhaskar is more than interesting. Some texts of the government statement actually forces people to raise eyebrows.
The IT department claims - "Cyclical trading and transfer of funds among group companies engaged in unrelated businesses to the tune of Rs 2,200 crore has been found. The enquiries have confirmed that these have been fictitious transactions without any actual movement or delivery of goods".
These charges are definitely of serious nature. It is true striking the elementary balance between commercial interests and social purposes or ethical journalism
would remain a challenge for the media in general.
"A free society cannot exist without a Free Press", said German newspaper magnate Axel Springer long back. If this point is well taken; we must also ponder over his question - "Is the Free Society willing to pay the price of a Free Press?".
Has society in India also not really bothered about how media houses and journalists function?
In Delhi, if a middle class neighbour knows a journalist, he would desire that the scribe helps him to get his daughter admitted in some schools or get railway reservation confirmed. They call it 'Jugadu' !
So the media also becomes an instrument for profit-making by the media houses - which obviously would have multiple business interests.
No marks for guessing; these have resulted in the 'lack of faith' among the masses on the functioning of the media.
Now, with regard to this particular group, if the IT department says - "The listed media company does barter deals for advertisement revenues, whereby immovable properties are received in lieu of actual payments"; the story is only getting murkier.
However, lastly in this context, one can refer to what Editor, Inder Malhotra, once said, "Newspaper circulations were small and salaries were smaller still. Corruption among journalists was so petty it was almost laughable".
He claimed that once a member Delhi Municipal Committee offered a bribe of 50 paisa for every line written to the reporters.
Another version is when the Working Journalists Act gave job security, it also made journalists beholden to the government.
ends 
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