Dharmendra Jore (MID-DAY; November 4, 2017)

Legendary ghazal singer Jagjit Singh's widow Chitra was extremely content on Friday, when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) hit all the right notes by raiding the Mumbai offices of the country's biggest music labels, for not paying music composers and lyricists royalty for years.

As per the officers' primary assessment, the fraud could be to the tune of Rs 1,500-2,000 crore. This amount was to be paid as royalty to the rightful owners of the copyright.

ED has found in its probe that the music industry captains collected royalty from consumers, but did not pay 50% of its share to music composers and lyricists. The case is being probed under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 and Indian Copyright Act which was amended in 2012.

Taal order
Chitra, who has offered ghazal connoisseurs unforgettable numbers with her late husband, had filed an FIR with ED last December. Following investigations, ED raided the top most music companies - T Series, Yash Raj, Universal, Sony and Saregama, on Friday.

"I wasn't sure as nobody was helping me. It's been a tough fight for a single woman like me. But ED took up my case, thanks to a bunch of nice officers in Mumbai. Now I'm confident that the agency will take my case to its logical end and punish the guilty," Chitra told mid-day on Friday.

Hitting a sour note
"Two top ghazal singers (one of them is a known bhajan singer) did not help me when I decided to fight, which would benefit them as well. These are the people who would frequent my home and say they respected my husband so much," she added.

Chitra said that after seeing the effectiveness of her complaint and the subsequent investigations, the singer duo has approached her lawyers in New Delhi with a plea that their case should also be taken up. "What can I say about these people? I'm cooking the food and now these 'selfish' people are out to eat it. But I took the step without anybody's support only because I wanted fellow workers to be protected against cheating by big players," said Chitra.

A source in ED said, "Hiding facts amounts to criminal offense. All stakeholders were told that the composers and lyricists were paid royalty as per the rule, whereas the money collected for this purpose was parked with (recording) companies or individuals other than the people eligible for getting their dues." Industry sources said some legal issues related to the India Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) too should be blamed for the mess. IPRS is a copyright society that issues licenses for public performances. The society pays royalties to legal heirs of deceased members. PPL has been functioning as the copyright society for sound recordings. It is mandatory for those who play pre-recorded music to take prior license from them. ED has summoned Bhushan Kumar of T Series for interrogation on Saturday, said sources in ED, Mumbai.

The petition
Last year, Chitra Singh had petitioned the Delhi High Court alleging that the IPRS was still issuing licenses for her husband's work, though not competent to do so under the Indian Copyright Act, and the said concerts breached various intellectual property rights held by her as his surviving heir. She alleged that she had not received any royalty for such concerts. The Delhi HC had ruled that the IPRS was incompetent to grant licenses as per Section 33 of the Copyright Act.