IANS/New Delhi
Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra yesterday said he would sue Jindal Group for defamation over its allegation of Rs1bn extortion bid by two journalists of his channel as the media baron faced police questions for the second consecutive day.
Chandra came along with his son and Zee Group managing director Puneet Goenka to the Delhi police Crime Branch office in the afternoon for the questioning. Goenka was allowed to leave after 15 minutes. Chandra’s questioning went on for six hours and ended around 8pm, a police official said.
Emerging from the questioning, Chandra told waiting journalist: “I am going to sue Jindal Group. I will take them to court for defaming me.”
“Jindal Group was offering even Rs25 crore,” he alleged.
“I came to know about the case five days after the first information report (FIR) got registered by Jindal,” he claimed. The complaint by Jindal was filed on October 2.
Denying the extortion charges, Chandra said: “It was an attempt to prevent news reports on the coalgate scam.”
Police had told a local court earlier that they were treating Chandra as an accused as he knew about the dealings between his employees and a Jindal Group company.
The Jindal company had alleged that the Zee Group tried to extort Rs1bn from it in exchange for not airing negative stories over the company’s alleged involvement in the coal blocks allocations controversy.
On Saturday, investigators questioned Chandra and his son for nine hours. They were also brought face-to-face with two Zee journalists Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia, who are in two days’ police custody for the alleged extortion bid.
They were again brought face-to-face yesterday.