South Indian TV Channel Owners Booked For Fraud

Indian police have registered a case of cheating against the owners of a South Indian TV channel in the UAE following a complaint by a Dubai businessman.

Keralites Raj Mohan and Abu Bakr, both in their fifties, are accused of fraudulently acquiring the channel licence from its legitimate owner Rajeev Menon.

Originally called World On, the channel is now known as World Vision HD and is telecast on channel No 814 on E-vision.

Rajeev Menon said he launched World On in partnership with Raj Mohan in 2015, as a private limited company registered in India. “As per our agreement, I was supposed to pay for all expenses in the UAE while Mohan was to bear all costs incurred in Kerala,” Menon told Gulf News.

“Imagine my shock when I found out that my partner and a third person [Abu Bakr] had launched a company in Dubai bearing the same name as that of my TV channel (World On). Using forged documents, they projected themselves as a subsidiary of the parent company in India and got the TV channel licence transferred to the new firm. Once that happened, they changed the channels’ name to Kerala Vision World before renaming it as World Vision HD added Menon, who later a filed petition before the district Court in Kochi, Kerala.

Following a court directive, the police registered a case against the accused.

They have been charged with criminal breach of trust, forgery and cheating. On May 18, the accused were granted anticipatory bail but have been barred from leaving the Ernakulam district without permission of the court till the final report in the case is filed. Menon said the fallout of the case has left him aghast and millions of dirhams out of pocket.―Gulf News