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Spicey Masala stewing in NZ High Court: Radio Tarana, Radio Humm and in middle of complex web of ownership, cash, loans is Harish Lodhia, the Honorary Consular Agent of Bainimarama government, in Auckland

9/4/2014

3 Comments

 
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Fiji-born Cameron Slater is the author of New Zealand’s best known and controversial blogsite, whaleoil.co.nz. The blog gets around 600,000 page views per month. He is also a commentator on The Nation, described as a high impact weekly TV 3 current affairs interview and magazine show about the major players and forces which shape New Zealand’s world. He was born in Fiji as his father was the then chief accountant for the Fiji Development Bank. He has regularly contributed articles to Fiji Sun.

As you all should know by now I have a special interest in matters arising from Fiji and all matters to do with media. The buzz in the local Auckland Fijian Indian community as of late is a right legal donnybrook brewing in the High Court between Robert Khan of NZ’s Number 1 Hindi station, Radio Tarana and Roshila and Satyandra Prasad, currently operating as Radio Humm.  What makes it all the spicier is that in the middle of the fight is the Honorary Consul for Fiji influential Auckland businessman, Harish Lodhia and a curiously complex trail of ownership, cash and loans.

All happening under the watchful yet seemingly lazy eye of MBIE.

Mr Lodhia leases 1386AM to Radio Tarana under a Full Commercial Licence.  He then has intertwined dealings with the registered owners of 5TUNZ, the company that operates Radio Humm on 106.2FM under a Local Commercial Licence.

At the heart of the matter is that local commercial licences are less expensive but more restrictive than full commercial licences and overseen by MBIE.  Mr Khan’s cost base therefore is higher than the Prasad’s and he operates under different rules.

Publicly available documents outline the dispute surrounding Mr Khan’s allegations that Radio Humm is failing in its statutory obligations under its Local Commercial Licence not only a) in terms of the required local content but b) commonality of ownership and the sometimes invisible hand of Harish Lodhia.

The 5TUNZ local commercial licence does not permit cross-ownership in a full commercial licence such as  Mr Lodhia’s 1386AM.

Radio Humm is directed more at the youth market and Mr Khan alleges that rather than have the required local content it is “predominantly international Bollywood and that does not fulfil the continuous broadcasting obligations”.  It is also alleged that Humm doesn’t meet local programming obligations.  

A quick look at Radio Humm’s website indicates that the main advertiser is indeed Mr Prasad’s employer Enterprise Motor Group where Mr Prasad holds a senior position since arriving in New Zealand in 1987.  The second most ubiquitous advertiser is its financing arm, Community Financial Services Limited (CFS). This is where things get rather fishy.
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Mrs Prasad refused to answer my questions citing the ongoing case and legal advice and Mr Prasad never returned my call.  Mr Khan also did not wish to comment at any length for the same reasons.  I say fair enough so I called the man in the middle Harish Lodhia who was more than happy to talk and provide background.

I asked Mr Lodhia if he saw a conflict between leasing one frequency and financing with and assisting the ownership of another to Mr & Mrs Prasad with loans for whatever reasons.  His response:

“My only obligation and financial interest is in Radio Tarana”.

Mr Lodhia asked me to look at the whole picture, so I did from correspondence to MBIE from Mr and Mrs Prasad’s lawyers on the 18th October 2013 as well as information publicly available from the Companies Office. The Prasads and Lodhias have previously set up a business together in 2007 called Eleganta Artifacts and Furniture (NZ) Limited.  Here is what the current picture looks like though:
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More to come in part II…………..the nature of the payments: Mr Lodhia paid $70,000 in cash through to the Prasads and it is alleged none of this was declared when it should have been.
Source: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/04/cars-cash-conflict-commercial-radio-stations-part/
3 Comments
Truth
9/4/2014 05:12:20 am

Robert Khan - this is what your hero has done to we the native landowners,,,,hope u happy bro
Bad boys bad boys what you gonna do???

Section 185 of the 1997 Constitution no longer exists. Why was it removed? That section specifies that any changes to “entrenched legislation” ie Native Lands Act, Native Lands Trust Act, Fijians Affairs Act etc – must be approved by 9 of the 14 GCC (Bose Levu Vakaturaga) members of the Senate. The GCC members are nominated from the Provinces and represent the native landowners of Fiji. By removing Section 185, Kaiyum’s government has effectively rendered we, the native landowners, powerless over our own land. This power, under the 2013 Constitution now rests with the politicians in Parliament. All these changes were made without the consent of we the native landowners and as such totally unacceptable. Worse, the changes were made by people we do not know or recognise. It was not made by the leaders we elected nor were they made by our chiefs.

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Fiji First Fijian
9/4/2014 05:36:00 am

Stop complaining, Truth.

Go back to the bush and sharp the spears!

Big talk and no action, BOYS, you bloody Fijians, and stop blaming Indo-Fijians, you lamu sonas for the last eight years!

Why didn't you chaps rise up and seized control of what you claim is rightfully yours - the native lands!

For this very reason I will vote for Fiji First Party, and believe me, I an an i-taukei Fijian

I can't take any chances with Sodelpa - for if they lose, they will protest but retreat into the bush for another eight years.

Yes, Frank, bring on the elections, for my vote awaits your party

Reply
Na Dina
9/4/2014 03:15:49 pm

Triple F
vakaraitaka tu nomu tamata lialia....
toso sara yani me sinai nomu taga

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