IANS/New Delhi
A Delhi court yesterday sent two Zee News journalists, arrested on an extortion complaint filed by Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s Jindal Power and Steel, to 14 days’ judicial custody.
Metropolitan magistrate Gaurav Rao sent the duo to judicial custody till December 14.
The two journalists also moved a bail application to which the court issued notice to police and sought their response by today.
Meanwhile, Zee News lawyer R K Handoo yesterday said the company chairman, Subhash Chandra, would soon appear before the police probing allegations that the two journalists had tried to extort Rs1bn from Jindal’s company.
“Chandra is out of the country. But he will testify before police,” Handoo, senior lawyer of the Supreme Court and representative of Zee News, said.
“He has nothing to hide. He may join the probe at any time,” Handoo added.
Police had on Wednesday served notice on Chandra asking him to testify after the arrest of Zee News editor Sudhir Chaudhary and Zee Business editor Samir Ahluwalia following complaints by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) claiming that money was sought to block the airing of a negative story on coal block allocations.
According to police, Chandra is one of the accused in the case, as he knew about the dealings between his employees and Jindal’s company. “We are waiting for him to record his statements,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime and railways) S B S Tyagi.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police had called a few more employees of Zee News in connection with the case.