The late ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh's widow, the renowned singer Chitra Singh, scored a big win when on her complaint the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the Mumbai offices of the country's biggest music labels - T Series, Yash Raj, Universal, Sony and Saregama. They are under the scanner for not paying composers and lyricists royalty for years. And as per ED sources, the combined fine for this fraud can amount up to Rs 2,000 crores! This amount had to be paid as royalty to the rightful owners of the copyright.

Now Shubha Mudgal, the popular Hindustani classical singer, has exclusively told Peeping Moon.com that she too had already filed a complaint against the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) and their Directors/Officers before the EOW of the Delhi Police. In Shubha’s words, “Similar complaints were also filed by the Music Composers Association of India and Film Writers Association. Pursuant to filing of the complaint, FIR No. 167 of 2016 was registered. Consequently, the matter was settled with necessary assurances from IPRS and a quashing petition was jointly filed by IPRS/PPL and other persons arrayed as accused in the FIR and by me before the Hon'ble Delhi High Court. The same is pending disposal and now listed on November 20, 2017 for consideration." She added, "I am not aware of any other raids etc (in reference to Chitra Singh), because as mentioned earlier, a quashing petition has been jointly filed already. But you can ask the Music Composers Association and Film Writers Association if you wish to.”

Interestingly, Shubha was among the handful of people who dared to take a step against these powerful music labels, apart from Chitra and Bhojpuri singer-actor Manoj Tiwari.

Chitra had filed an FIR with the ED last December. In her petition before the Delhi High Court, she alleged that the IPRS was still issuing licenses for her late husband, Jagjit Singh’s work despite they being deemed unfit to do so under the Indian Copyright Act. Furthermore, she alleged that the various concerts being held were the breach of her intellectual property rights, as she is Jagjit’s surviving heir and has not received any royalty for such concerts. She took the step without anybody's support because, Chitra said, “I wanted fellow workers to be protected against cheating by big players.”