The Income Tax department has carried out “surveys” at Raghav Bahl’s residence in Noida and the offices of The Quint and The News Minute. Bahl is a media entrepreneur and the founder of The Quint, a web based news platform. He is also an investor in The News Minute.
Bahl wrote in a letter addressed to the Editor’s Guild:
“I have a matter of great concern to share with the Guild. While I was in Mumbai this morning, dozens of IT officials descended on my residence and The Quint’s office for a “survey”. We are a fully tax compliant entity, and will provide all access to all appropriate financial documents. However, I have just spoken to the officer on my premises, one Mr Yadav, and requested him, strongly, to not try and pick up or see any other mail/document which is likely to contain very serious/sensitive journalistic material. If they do that, then we shall seek extremely strong recourse. I do hope the EG will back us on this, and thereby set a precedent for any such exercise that may happen on any other journalistic entity in the future. They should also not misuse their smartphones to take unauthorised copies of this material.
I am now on my way back to Delhi.
Warm regards. Raghav”