Avtar Singh Lit (7 April 1950 – 27 June 2023) was a British businessman who was the owner and chairman of Sunrise Radio Group.
He was listed by AIM magazine as one of the "20 most powerful Asians in British media" in 2005, and was said to have amassed a big personal fortune.
[5][6] In 2011, it was reported in The Guardian that £160,000 donated by Sunrise Radio listeners in support of victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and 2005 Kashmir earthquake was not spent on the victims as had been intended with the campaign, but "left dormant in a bank account for almost seven years", it being judged by the Charities Commission that although there was "no evidence to suggest that the funds were at risk of misapplication", the account's trustees "did not act appropriately", and had "failed to provide a sufficient satisfactory explanation or provide evidence to give reason for their delay".
A spokesman for the Disasters Emergency Committee, whilst supporting the trustees' "good intentions", observed that these were not enough and a "clear plan and procedures to ensure you will be able to spend the money you raise in a timely, effective and transparent fashion" were required in such circumstances.
[7] In 2007, Lit was embroiled in what Joan Ryan, Labour MP and vice-chair, called "breathtaking and naked Tory opportunism" in the course of "David Cameron's personal intervention to overrule local Tories and appoint a candidate"; The Guardian reported that Lit's son, Tony, Cameron's "star candidate" viewed as "a new type of Tory: young, successful, metropolitan" and who, it was hoped, would "deliver a blow to Gordon Brown by winning the contest", attended with his family a farewell dinner for Tony Blair at the cost of £4,800- spending an additional £4,000 in a bid for "a weekend trip to Atlanta, the highlight of which was two seats at a dinner with Hillary Clinton"- despite being announced as the Conservative candidate for the Ealing Southall by-election the next week.