Hours before the Board of Directors of Associated Broadcasting Company Private Limited (ABCL), the organisation that runs news channel TV9, publicly announced sacking its founder and Chief Executive Officer Ravi Prakash, the latter submitted his resignation and made a scathing attack against the ‘forced in’ Board.
On Friday evening, the directors of ABCL announced that Ravi Prakash has been removed as the CEO, after Ravi had said on air the day before that he was still the CEO of TV9 and was not ‘absconding’.
Ravi Prakash, and former Chief Financial Officer MKVN Murthy, have been accused of forgery. According to the Board, the duo failed to declare the appointment of the new Board of Directors with the Registrar of Companies, and allegedly removed the Company Secretary by forging his signature to stall the appointment of the new Directors.
In his letter, Ravi Prakash alleged that the Board were representatives of political honchos “who are out there to devour ‘every’ journalist and independent media house today.”
Ravi alleged that the Board threatened the Company Secretary to file a false complaint against him. “You have not only threatened a professional ‘Company Secretary’ to falsely lodge a complaint on ABCL and its ‘existing’ directors. You, with the support of a few members at the Registrar of Companies, to enter ABCL as directors from the backdoor and take illegal control. You have ensued to file false complaints since I chose to be treated as a ‘journalist’ who created one of the most profitable media groups in the country today (sic),” he wrote.
Alleging an attempt to tarnish his image, Ravi said that the Board had manipulated the Telangana police to tarnish his image, and ultimately turn TV9 into another "political mouthpiece".
Ravi also alleged that the Board members are representatives of political business houses “which are purely bent on illegal, pretentious & hostile ways of ruining independent media houses” for their benefit.
After a complaint against Ravi and Murthy with the cyber-crime cell, the Cyberabad Police on Thursday searched the TV9 office and Ravi’s residence. They also seized some hard disks and other materials.
Ravi Prakash continues to be the shareholder in the company. He has been replaced by Mahendra Mishra, who has been appointed as the interim CEO.
Read the full text of Ravi's letter below.
To
The Board of Directors,
Associated Broadcasting Company Private Limited (ABCL),
# 97, Road # 3, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad 500 034 Telangana.
Sub: Resignation to the position of CEO of TV9 Group of Channels owing to MALICIOUS ARM TWISTING, MISREPRESENTED & FALSIFIED Cases – REG
Dear Members of the ‘FORCED IN’ Board,
I, Ravi Prakash, the Founder & Chairman of TV9 Group of Channels, with great adieu wish to put on the following points before a simple line of RESIGNATION.
• You are representatives of political honchos who are out there to devour ‘EVERY’ journalist and independent media house today.
• You have not only threatened a professional ‘Company Secretary’ to falsely lodge a complaint on ABCL & its ‘Existing’ directors.
• You, with the support of a few members at the Registrar of Companies to enter ABCL as directors from the backdoor & take illegal control.
• You have ensued to file false complaints since I chose to be treated as a ‘JOURNALIST’ who created one of the most profitable media groups in the country today.
• You have not stopped even at pushing the Telangana Police which was at your disposal to try & achieve your goal of tarnishing my unscathed image, thereby in an effort to make TV9 another political mouth piece.
• You have violated stringent orders of the Honorable National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) restraining the company to alienate its shares or assets of the company in collusion with the earlier promoter Mr. Srinivasa Raju of iLabs.
• You are representatives of Political ‘BUSINESS’ Houses, which are purely bent of illegal, pretentious & hostile ways of ruining Independent Media Houses to your benefit.
• You are members of ‘Alanda Media & Entertainments Private Limited’ which now has investments in businesses of the same order, surprisingly which do not come under the Competition Commission of India scanner.
• You have not stopped at using your existing mouth piece television channels to make scathing attacks on me while saying I have been absconding. While, I went on AIR yesterday evening to clear the air about such remarks, with due respect to the Honorable Courts of this country, I did not take any names.
• You have stooped down the level of hounding, harassing & ill-treating my colleagues purely for the sake of ‘FORCEFUL’ takeover of the company.
• You will continue to see me as a fellow shareholder & legal owner of my share of the company in the courts of law.
Hoping that the independent journalism I sowed will continue to flourish and work for the society, as always.
I remain,
RP
Read: Ravi Prakash no longer TV9 CEO, Alanda takes management control of ABCPL