Shimla's top Doordarshan official booked for fraud

The CBI has registered a case of financial irregularities amounting to Rs 50 lakh against a top official of Doordarshan centre in Shimla and two companies based in Jalandhar in Punjab, it was announced on Tuesday.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team had raided the Doordarshan centre in Shimla on June 10 following complaints of alleged financial irregularities related to payments for programmes aired by the public broadcaster from 2007-12.

The CBI said then Shimla Station Director, who is now the Deputy Director General of Doordarshan Kendra in Jalandhar while currently holding additional charge of Shimla centre too, had entered into a criminal conspiracy with distributors of the companies and allowed permission for telecast of Hindi films on the basis of fake documents.

It was alleged that a payment of approximately Rs 50 lakh was made to both the companies for telecasting Hindi feature films, tele films and Hindi film songs without following the guidelines and based on fake and incomplete documents.

Searches were conducted at six places in Jalandhar and two places in Shimla at the official and residential premises of the accused which yielded the recovery of incriminating documents, the CBI said in a statement.

--IANS

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