Raids on Prannoy Roy's house attack on freedom of press: Cong

The Congress today condemned the CBI raids on NDTV founder Prannoy Roy and termed it as an attack on the freedom of the press.
Criticising the NDA government for its "pick and choose" policy while taking on the media houses, the opposition party said it is "an attempt to create an atmosphere of terror and muzzle the voice" of the fourth estate.
Senior Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said the Congress strongly condemns the action and warns the Central government that it should not try to hound the media.
"It is a strong attack on the freedom of the press and the Congress party strongly condemns it. We warn the central government that it should not try to hound and threaten the media," he said.

"We are standing with the media. If the need arises, we will use democratic means to oppose this action," he said, adding that the prime minister has used derogatory words like "bazaaru" and a Union minister had branded the media as "presstitutes".
Maken also questioned the timing of the raids as it happened two days after a NDTV journalist's spat with a BJP leader on a TV debate on the beef ban notification.

Another senior Congress leader Anand Sharma criticised the Centre over the CBI raids, saying it was "blatant abuse of power taking place in the country".
"Centralisation of decision-making is happening at the Centre. The media and the other voices of dissent are being muzzled. A warning is being sent to the media outlets to fall in line or face a similar fate," Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha told reporters in Mumbai.

"The government machinery is being misused and an environment of fear is being created through the (investigation) agencies," Sharma alleged.
Maken said till the time NDTV was playing into the hands of the government everything was fine and cited several incidents in this regard, including the channel not airing the interview of former finance minister P Chidambaram.
The Delhi Congress chief and former Union minister said NDTV has done several reports against the UPA government but it never used such a policy to hound it.
Both Maken and Sharma said many BJP chief ministers and other ministers have serious allegations against them but asked why was no inquiry or action initiated against them.

"When somebody questions them, they become anti- nationals. We never did this when we were in power. Those who had no contribution towards India's freedom have no right to preach nationalism," Sharma said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today raided the residence of Roy, the founder of NDTV, in New Delhi and three other locations in connection with losses allegedly caused by the journalist to a private bank.
NDTV called it a "witch-hunt" based on the "same old false accusations".
The CBI has registered a case against Roy, his wife Radhika and RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 48 crore to ICICI Bank, sources in the probe agency told PTI.

They said the CBI was conducting searches at two places in the national capital and one each in Dehradun and Mussoorie in connection with the case.