Two Zee News editors, who were arrested on charges of alleged extortion, levelled by Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), were remanded in two-day custody by a local court on Wednesday. The editors, Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwalia, were arrested by the city police on Monday evening.
While denying allegations that Zee News tried to extort `100 crore from JSPL for not airing or going slow on the reports mentioning it in the coal scam, R K Handoo, counsel for the Zee Group, termed the arrest nefarious and illegal. He stated that the arrests were made before a holiday to deny bail to his clients. The city police told the court that Zee Group chairman Subash Chandra and managing director Punit Goenka were also in the list of accused in the extortion case. Additional Public Prosecutor had stated before the court that Chaudhary and Ahluwalia should be interrogated to get to the root of the allegations. Following this, the duo was remanded in police custody until November 30.
Chaudhary and Ahluwalia are facing charges of extortion (section 384), criminal conspiracy (section 120B) and cheating (section 420), among others.
The Zee Group, in a statement stated that the Congress-led government is trying to gag the media. It also termed the day of arrests ‘black’. While the matter is sub-judice, to circumvent the judicial process and the orders of the honourable High Court, the city police, at the behest of a Congress MP, orchestrated the arrests on the basis of a fraudulent and contrived complaint filed on behalf of his company, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), it alleged.