Sudhir Chaudhary Head of Zee News and Samir Ahluwalia Head of Zee Business have been arrested by Delhi Police in the wake of Reverse Sting operation conducted by Jindal Power and Steel Ltd for demanding Rs 100 Crores as ransom.
The incident also colloquially referred as Zeegate has exposed the dark side of Indian media, as it clearly shows Top Executives of Zee TV demanding Rs 100 crores from Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s company in exchange for not filing news reports linking his firm to the coal blocks allocation, said police.
“Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia were arrested by Crime Branch Tuesday evening under criminal conspiracy and extortion cases,” Deputy Commissioner of Police S.B.S. Tyagi told IANS.
The journalists will be presented before the Saket court on Wednesday.
Jindal last month released a CD which purportedly showed footage in which the Zee journalists were trying to strike a deal with his company officials, telling them that their TV news channel will not air negative stories on Jindal Group if the money is paid to them.
Chaudhary had rubbished the allegations as “fabrication” and described it as “pressure tactics” to prevent the channel from doing expose stories.
“We have done a series of stories on coal scam based on official papers. This is a retaliation to our relentless campaign against corruption,” he had said.
ZEE has accused the Jindal Steel and Power Limited, owned by Congress MP Naveen Jindal, of “using state machinery, controlled by the Congress party both at the centre and Delhi, to muzzle voices of dissent and interfere with the legitimate rights of the Media to divert attention and cloud its illegalities and misdeeds which these editors in the channel sought to highlight in public interest , highlighting the corruption in the coal gate scam after being indicted by CAG, and being investigated by the CBI.”
In a statement, the company said: “After over 65 years of independence, now the present Congress-led government is pushing media not to say the truth and gag its mouth. It is practically Emergency revisited in India today on Nov 27, 2012 (this will be known as another black day in Indian History).
“While the matter is sub-judice before the Hon’ble High Court of Bombay, to circumvent the judicial process and the orders of the Hon’ble Mumbai High Court, the Delhi police at the behest of its Congress MP orchestrated arrests of two Senior Editors of Zee News Channel, Sh Samir Ahluwalia and Sh Sudhir Chowdhary, on the basis of a fraudulent and contrived complaint filed on behalf of his company Jindal Steel and Power Limited.
“The arrests have been made to sensationalize the issue and lend a cover to the coal-gate scam and in particular to favour of Shri Naveen Jindal, Congress MP and his company M/S Jindal Steel and Power Limited.”
“This is a crude and direct attack on the freedom of the Press.”
“The FIR registered against the two Editors and others, is nothing but a clever attempt to divert attention from its own role in the scam. The channel vehemently denies all allegations levelled against it.
The channel strongly condemns the arbitrary and illegal action of Delhi Police in arresting its two editors and for initiating a malicious, illegal and motivated prosecution. We wish to reiterate that no offence has been committed by members of staff,” the statement said.
“Our executives’ arrest is illegal. We strongly condemn arrests of our two executives,” Zee News Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alok Agarwal told reporters at a press conference in New Delhi
“Our channel raised fundamental questions about coal blocks allocated to the Jindal Group. Jindal’s mother pleaded with us to play down the coalgate,” he said.
Jindal, who is chairman of Jindal Power and Steel Ltd, (JPSL), had earlier claimed that the Zee executives had demanded Rs.20 crore for four years and they secretly filmed the meetings.
They later raised the demand to Rs.100 crore for not broadcasting stories against the company in relation to allocation of coal blocks, Jindal alleged.
JPSL is among the companies named in the CAG report as one of the beneficiaries of the controversial coal block allocations.
In a retaliatory move, Zee News last month sent a Rs.150 crore defamation notice to the Congress MP, who too had filed a Rs.200 crore case against the media conglomerate, claiming the TV channel had tried to extort money from his company.
Zee News last month sent a Rs.150 crore defamation notice to the Congress MP, who too had filed a Rs.200 crore suit against the media conglomerate, claiming that the TV channel had tried to extort money from his company.
Watch the whole Sting Operation Video