The Enforcement Directorate (ED) yesterday carried out searches at multiple places belonging to five leading music companies - YRF Music, Saregama, T-Series, Sony and Universal Music - in Mumbai. Sources said the action was initiated after the central agency received "reliable information" from the industry that artistes were not being given royalties despite the same being collected and that the amount in question was huge.

Royalty row
ED sources said eight premises belonging to these companies in Andheri, Bandra and Malad were searched based on tip-offs from well-known artistes, who told them that the companies had been siphoning off hundreds of crores and not passing on the royalties to the singers, composers, musicians and other artistes as necessitated by the Copyright Act.