Fundamental right to privacy violated, says Newslaundry co-founder day after IT dept search operations

A day after the Income Tax department conducted searches at Newslaundry offices, the organisation's co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri took to Twitter to give details of the operation.

Sekhri said that the IT team of six or seven officials that arrived at the premises at 12:15 PM yesterday left after conducting the operation past midnight.

Claiming that his fundamental right to privacy was violated, Sekhri said that IT officials took control of his personal phone, laptop and a couple of office machines and downloaded all the data. He also claimed that no hash value of the data copied was provided to me.

Claiming that Newslaundry had not done anything wrong and did not violate any law, Sekhri said that they will continue to cooperate with the authorities when needed.

The Income Tax department search was in connection with its investigation into the finances and funding of the organisation.

Media reports citing IT sources claimed that Newslaundry allegedly received FDI at a very high premium while their net worth was very low. 

Sources also claimed that there were also gaps in the company's financials, which suggest tax evasion.

Besides Newslaundry offices, the IT teams also visited the Newsclick premises.

• FDI
• Foreign funding
• IT Department
• Income Tax
• Newsclick
• Newslaundry
• data
• Abhinandan Sekhri