Subramanian Swamy alleges NDTV's Prannoy Roy will escape to South Africa; Roy calls him a liar

The tussle between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy and NDTV founder-promoter Prannoy Roy seemed to be heating up.

But the fight has gone a step ahead with Swamy asking for a lookout notice against Roy.

Taking on to the Twitter, Swamy asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the IT Department to issue a look out notice, as he believes Roy could escape to South Africa.

“I am asking ED and ITD through a letter to PM to issue a Look Out Notice against Pranay Roy. He may escape to Cape Town South Africa,” he tweeted.

I am asking ED and ITD through a letter to PM to issue a Look Out Notice against Pranay Roy. He may escape to Cape Town South Africa.

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 16, 2018

Roy had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to drop the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigations into financial frauds of NDTV to promote press freedom.

Prannoy Roy responded to Swamy’s tweet, calling the latter a liar.  

LIAR SWAMY AT IT AGAIN.

— Prannoy Roy (@PrannoyRoyNDTV) February 16, 2018

The agency had earlier raided the NDTV promoters’ residences in June 2017 after registering an FIR against them. The FIR was also registered against RRPR Holding Private Ltd, NDTV India Limited and unknown others.

The allegation appears to be for a loan which has been repaid by the couple more than seven years ago, NDTV clarified in its statement and also updated the receipt of the payment made to the ICICI Bank.

“Searches were carried out at four locations in Delhi, Dehradun and Mussoorie,” said a senior CBI officer. The agency, however, did not carry out raids on NDTV office but searched the office of RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd.

Swamy’s claim comes after India has seen defaulters like Vijay Mallya and now jeweler Nirav Modi being outside India while being accused of financial fraud.

Recently, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has detected a 1.77 billion dollar scam, in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had received the complaint from PNB on January 28 and a case was registered on January 31.