Enforcement Directorate searches RF Music, Saregama, T-Series, Sony

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) yesterday carried out searches at multiple places belonging to five leading music companies - YRF Music, Saregama, T-Series, Sony and Universal Music - in Mumbai. Sources said the action was initiated after the central agency received "reliable information" from the industry that artistes were not being given royalties despite the same being collected and that the amount in question was huge.

Royalty row
ED sources said eight premises belonging to these companies in Andheri, Bandra and Malad were searched based on tip-offs from well-known artistes, who told them that the companies had been siphoning off hundreds of crores and not passing on the royalties to the singers, composers, musicians and other artistes as necessitated by the Copyright Act.

The searches were conducted to collate documents relating to financial transactions and details of songs, which could help officers to ascertain if the Act had been violated and if any money-laundering had taken place.

Another source said the Indian Performing Right Society and Phonographic Performance Limited were also under ED's scanner. Officers said that apart from the Mumbai offices of these music companies, those in Delhi and Kolkata were also searched. No case has been registered against these companies yet.

'Full cooperation'
A spokesperson for YRF said, "The ED visited YRF on a fact-finding mission to collect author/composer music documents to assess royalties payable to select artistes. YRF cooperated..."

A T-Series insider said, "The employees were sent home early. A similar raid had taken place last year. The officials expected full cooperation and those at the helm of things were happy to allow them to do their job."

At Sony Music, too, the operation took place without much disruption. "It went on for a few hours." However, senior officials in Delhi and Kolkata were unaware of it till late last night. An official intimation was sent after the COO conducted a meeting with his senior executives.

Saregama and Universal Music remained unavailable for comment.