The Enforcement Directorate has summoned top music company honchos to their office to record their statements in connection with the alleged multi-crore scam regarding non-payment of royalty to artistes
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned top music company honchos to their office to record their statements in connection with the alleged multi-crore scam regarding non-payment of royalty to artistes.
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Last Friday, raids were conducted in Aditya Chopra's Yashraj Films' office. File pic
According to top ED sources, they have summoned Aditya Chopra, chairman of Yash Raj Films (YRF), Shridhar Subramanium, vice-president of Sony Music India, and Devraj Sanyal, MD-CEO of Universal Music, to appear before the agency with relevant documents.
Top ED officials said, "Sanyal has been asked to come on Tuesday, Subramanium, on Wednesday, and Chopra on Thursday."
ED had also grilled T-Series owner Bhushan Kumar for over nine hours in the same case. Sources also revealed that ED had summoned Kumar first because they found several incriminating documents against T-series.
Last Friday, raids were conducted at the offices of top music labels, including T-Series, Saregama, Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Yashraj Films, in various cities. Music companies played down the raids at their offices as mere surveys and fact-finding missions.
ED is seeking details of the financial transactions related to music rights from the music companies. The agency had launched an investigation a few months ago after a popular singer filed an FIR in Delhi against industry bodies Indian Performing Right Society Ltd (IPRS) and Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) for non-payment of dues and other irregularities.
The complaint, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, reportedly alleged that the music labels were not passing on royalties to artistes, including singers and lyricists, as prescribed under the Copyright Act.
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