At last, former chief executive officer of popular television channel TV9 V Ravi Prakash managed to escape from being thrown behind the bars.
The Telangana high court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to Ravi Prakash with certain conditions.
The court asked him to appear before the Cybercrime police of Telangana once in a week and not to go out of the country without permission.
Ravi Prakash, who was sacked as the channel’s CEO and from the post of director in Associated Broadcasting Company Private Limited (ABCL) a few months ago, was facing criminal cases with regard to alleged cheating and conspiracy filed by the new management of the channel Alanda Media and Entertainment Private Limited.
Since then, Ravi Prakash had been evading arrest and tapped all sources to avoid being arrested by the police. He is learnt to have got the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership.
However, according to highly placed sources, the Alanda Media management had come to a compromise with Ravi Prakash, after realising that the legal rights over the trademark design and logo of TV9 are vested with him.
Apparently, documents revealed that it was Ravi Prakash who was the rightful owner of the logo and design of TV9 under the Copy Right Act and that he had given the logo to the previous management only on lease for a certain period which is being renewed periodically.
Since the TV9 channel has already become popular, the new management cannot continue with a new logo, as the Centre is not giving permission to new channels at present. As a result, it had no other option but to come to an understanding with Ravi Prakash.
“The management is understood to have agreed to withdraw police complaint with regard to the logo theft, but expressed helplessness in the other forgery cases as the police have all the evidences about the same. However, it has ensured Ravi Prakash gets the bail and that the cases get fizzled out in due course,” sources said.
In return, the management has agreed to pay adequate monetary compensation to Ravi Prakash to get out of the channel, apart from his share in the channel, on the condition that he should give up the rights on the logo and also in the channel.
“The deal is in the final stages of settlement,” sources said.