The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at NDTV co-founder Prannoy Roy’s residence in Delhi early Monday morning. Confirming the raids, news agency ANI reported that a case has been registered against Roy, his wife and fellow co-founder of NDTV Radhika Roy, a private company and other entities “for causing an alleged loss to ICICI bank to the tune of Rs 48 crore”.

News agency PTI also confirmed the raids had been conducted.

Searches were conducted at four places in Delhi (including Roys’ home in Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I) and Dehradun.

In November 2015, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had served a notice to the Roys and senior executive KVL Narayan Rao for alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy responded to the news saying, “fear of law is necessary”.

Others, however, saw the raids as a means of intimidating a media outlet generally perceived to be critical of the government.

NDTV has responded to the CBI raids:

This morning the CBI stepped up the concerted harassment of NDTV and its promoters based on the same old endless false accusations.

NDTV and its promoters will fight tirelessly against this witch-hunt by multiple agencies. We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India.

We have one message to those who are trying to destroy the institutions of India and everything it stands for: we will fight for our country and overcome these forces.

UPDATE: Following CBI raids in the morning, NDTV released another statement with a supporting document. In its latest statement, the private broadcaster said, “NDTV and its promoters have never defaulted on any loan to ICICI or any other bank. We adhere to the highest levels of integrity and independence. It is clearly the independence and fearlessness of NDTV‘s team that the ruling party’s politicians cannot stomach and the CBI raid is merely another attempt at silencing the media.”

The channel also said that the allegations “appear to be for a loan which has been repaid by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy more than seven years ago.” The statement expressed shock over the CBI raids in the absence of a preliminary enquiry.

“The CBI has been compelled to file an FIR based on a shoddy complaint by a disgruntled former consultant at NDTV called Sanjay Dutt, who has been making false allegations and filing cases in courts of law,” the statement added.