Founder Aniruddha Bahal Based in New Delhi Website cobrapost.com | Country India Language English, Hindi | |
Year founded 2003; 14 years ago (2003) | ||
Cobrapost is an Indian news website and television production house, known for its investigative journalism, which has involved sting operations. It was founded in 2003 by Aniruddha Bahal who earlier co-founded Tehelka.
Sting operations
In 2005, along with Aaj Tak, Cobrapost conducted a sting operation named Operation Duryodhana that exposed eleven members (MPs) accepting money for tabling their questions in the Parliament of India. This investigation led to expulsion of eleven MPs from the Parliament, the largest expulsion of MPs in the country's history.
In March 2013, its Operation Red Spider charged that some banks in India were involved in money laundering, using false accounts to convert black money into white.
In November 2013, Cobrapost along with the website Gulail claimed in tapes titled The Stalkers that in 2009, then Home Minister of Gujarat Amit Shah and his team stalked a woman for their Saheb. The Indian National Congress alleged that the saheb was Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chief minister of Gujarat. In Operation Blue Virus, Cobrapost accused some IT companies of using fake identities on social media to help politicians, especially BJP members, to improve their popularity. The BJP alleged that these were works of the Congress to defame Narendra Modi and the party.
An undercover operation resulting in a video named Operation Falcon Claw showed that eleven MPs from different parties agreed to lobby for a fictitious foreign company, and also that MPs received money ranging from ₹50,000 (US$740) to ₹5,000,000 (US$74,000) for issuing recommendation letters.
On 3 April 2014, Cobrapost published on their website about their investigation, Operation Janambhoomi, into the conspiracy behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid, in which they bring to light the conspiracy behind the events of 6 December 1992, which rewrote the history of modern India on communal lines.