‘Hawala transfers for AAP’s Goa campaign’: India Ahead executive held by CBI in Delhi excise case

The commercial head and production controller of India Ahead has been arrested by the CBI over the agency’s probe into the Delhi excise scam case.

“Arvind Kumar Singh, the commercial head and production controller of the news channel, was arrested for alleged transfer of Rs 17 crore to a company handling the Aam Aadmi Party’s publicity campaign during the Goa elections through hawala channels,” officials said, according to PTI.

The CBI has allegedly found WhatsApp chats and records of hawala operators, showing Singh’s role in hawala transfers between June 2021 and January 2022 to Chariot Media, which was handling the AAP’s outdoor advertisement campaign for the Goa polls, officials said.

In March, Newslaundry had reported how the channel appears to have been on auto-pilot mode with pre-recorded content since December last year – just two months after it was in the headlines for a central agency probe against three people linked to the broadcaster and its parent firm Andhra Prabha in the Delhi excise case.

Ratings have barely shown any sign of improvements and there have been a string of resignations, primarily due to irregular salaries, since May last year. But the broadcaster has continued to receive a significant amount of government ads.

Update at 7.47 pm, May 17: According to a report on Exchange4media, India Ahead issued a statement claiming it has “nothing to do with these individual actions”. The company also said that the channel has “ceased operations due to certain difficulties”.