Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday criticised the Income Tax Department raids against the Dainik Bhaskar media group, and said people need to know if this was not "undeclared Emergency".

It also said that this media house had "fearlessly reported the failures of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath".

The I-T department on Thursday conducted raids against Dainik Bhaskar and Uttar Pradesh-based Hindi news channel Bharat Samachar, in multiple cities on charges of tax evasion. The searches in case of Dainik Bhaskar were being conducted in Bhopal, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Noida and some other locations in the country.

Taking to Twitter, NCP spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik said, "Since the reports of Snooping via #Pegasus spyware was brought out in the public domain, the central government has begun to target those who are exposing them. The latest victim is @DainikBhaskar, they have been fearlessly reporting about the failures of UP CM Mr @myogiadityanath and to muzzle the voice of this media house and hide the truth, they are being raided by the income tax."

"Even the news channel Bharat Samachar and it's editor @brajeshlive who are highlighting these raids are being raided too," he said.

"Is this not undeclared Emergency ?Is this not Killing Freedom of Speech? Is this not a Death Warrant of Democracy ?India and it's people need answers," he said.

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