Founders of the media website Quint on Friday denied allegations of financial wrongdoing, stating that details of all transactions had been fully declared in the appropriate tax filings and had been accepted and assessed by the Income Tax Department.
The statement came a day after the department conducted a “survey” on the premises of Quintillion Media Group. The founders also questioned the involvement of private digital experts in collecting data during the exercise, raising privacy concerns.
The statement alleged that a “blatant attempt had been made by the government’s spin-masters to say that the action was part of a year-long investigation into some long-term capital gains (LTCG) scam, whereby Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur had made “bogus” income of ₹118 crore”.
‘A frame-up’
“So the attempt to ‘colour’ our tax returns, now, as ‘bogus’, is clearly a frame-up, and we shall take every legal recourse to protect our fair name and reputation in this case,” the statement said.
Mr. Bahl said details of the purchase of a flat in London had already been declared, while information on sale of shares in Network18 to Reliance Industries Limited in 2014 and Bloomberg investment in Quintillion was also shared with the search team.
The founders also denied any dealings with Advantage Consulting, Artevea Digital (UK) or one C.B.N. Reddy. They questioned the simultaneous surveys at their investee companies.
