Agencies/New Delhi
Two journalists of Zee News network were arrested on charges of extortion from a business group run by Congress Party MP Naveen Jindal, officials said yesterday.
A Delhi court sent Zee News group editor Sudhir Chaudhary and business chief Sameer Ahluwalia to two days’ police custody.
Jindal accused the two of trying to extort an advertising deal worth Rs1bn ($18mn) from his company.
The MP said the demand was in exchange for dropping investigative stories about his firm’s alleged links to a multi-billion dollar scandal involving allocation of coal licences.
“We have made an effort that the truth must come out. Media has to be above suspicion,” Jindal said.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gomti Manocha sent the two men to two days’ custody of Crime Branch of Delhi police until tomorrow and dismissed their bail plea.
The police had sought three days’ custody of the journalists to interrogate them, and said while reporting on the matter, the Zee News misreported facts and “there was an element of deception involved.”
Advocate Rebecca John appearing for the journalists told the court that both were innocent and respectable individuals. She denied the allegations made by the Jindal Group that they attempted to extort Rs1bn from the company.
She added: “Money was never involved in the case and there was no deal. Where is the crime?”
John told the court that a meeting between the Jindal Power and Steel Ltd (JPSL) officials and the two journalists was held only because the company’s officials had called them, and her clients had not made any deal with them.
Public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said the police had video and audio recordings as evidence against the journalist demanding money from Jindal Group.
Jindal last month released a CD which purportedly showed footage in which the journalists were trying to strike a deal with his company officials, telling them that their TV news channel would not air negative stories on Jindal Group if the money was paid to them.
Jindal, who is chairman of JPSL, had earlier claimed that the Zee executives had demanded Rs200mn for four years and they secretly filmed the meetings. They later raised the demand to Rs1bn for not broadcasting stories against the company in relation to the allocation of coal blocks, Jindal alleged.
JPSL is among the companies named in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report as one of the beneficiaries of the controversial coal blocks allocation.
Zee News denied the allegations, accusing Jindal of trying to bribe the journalists. It said the Congress-led government was trying to muzzle the press and accused Delhi police of acting on Jindal’s behalf.
“We strongly condemn the illegal arrests. We want their immediate release,” Zee News chief executive Alok Aggarwal said.
The journalists could be jailed for up to three-and-a-half years if convicted on charges of extortion and criminal conspiracy.