The Enforcement Directorate has conducted searches at Essel Group’s Mumbai office, which also serves as the office premises for Zee Media, ET Now reported, citing sources.

The ED also probed the group’s staffers during the raids held on Wednesday. Besides Zee Media, the said premise has offices of Zee Learn, Mount Litera Edu Foundation, Essel Homes and Essel Infra and Housing.  

This comes days after Sony Pictures Entertainment reportedly called off the $10 billion merger with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. The move followed a stalemate over whether Zee’s chief executive officer Punit Goenka would lead the merged entity amid an investigation into his conduct by capital markets regulator SEBI.

The report also claimed that Zee had moved the National Company Law Tribunal against Sony to contest the claims made by the latter before it cancelled the deal. The company reportedly also challenged Sony's demand for $90 million in arbitration proceedings. 

Following the Zee-Sony break up, the Subhash Chandra-owned company was also mulling legal action against Sony. 

Newslaundry earlier reported that nearly a week before Sony cancelled the merger, Chandra had reportedly written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, accusing SEBI of operating with a motive to sabotage the deal. Read here.

Newslaundry had also reported on Chandra’s collapsing house of cards – from being a media maverick to spending the last few years repaying debts. Read the deep-dive report here.

This report was published by AI assistance.