The bail pleas of two senioreditors of Zee News accused of attempting to extort Rs 100crore from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's company was todayrejected by a Delhi court, which remanded them in two-daypolice custody.
Sudhir Chaudhary, head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia,Editor of Zee Business, who were arrested for allegedly tryingto extort money from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's group for notbroadcasting news reports on coal scam linking his firm, wereproduced before Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha, whoaccepted police's plea for their custodial interrogation.
The Prosecution had said their custodial interrogationwas necessary to unearth the conspiracy and the allegedcomplicity of channel's chairman Subhash Chandra and its MDPunit Goenka, who are also named as accused in the case.
The duo will now be produced before the court on November30.
Chaudhary and Ahluwalia were arrested last night onthe complaint by Jindal's company filed in October.
Both the journalists have been booked under section 384(extortion), 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishablewith imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC.
Earlier, before the court proceedings, Jindal group in astatement said law was taking its own course and called itunfortunate that Zee TV has come out with a comment that thearrest of its editors in the case was a Black Day for themedia.
"Zee TV's comment that the arrest of its editors is aBlack Day for the media is unfortunate. The arrest of the twojournalists being termed Black Day is rather demeaning thecredibility of the media. Instead, Black Day was the day whenthese editors tried to extort 100 crore rupees from Jindalgroup under the garb of media," the statement said.
Delhi Police said that after the arrest of the two journalists, it has sent a notice to Subhash Chandra askinghim to join investigations in connection with the case.
Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan opposed the bailplea of the two editors and said their custody was needed toascertain the alleged complicity of Chandra as they haddemanded Rs 100 crore from Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL)in the form of advertisments to the channel.
JSPL is among the companies named in the CAG report asone of the beneficiaries of the controversial coal blockallocations.
The police also said it needed to find out the sourcefrom which the CAG report, which is the subject matter ofdispute between the news channel and the Jindal Group, wasobtained.
The prosecutor said the probe agency has evidence in theform of video and audio recordings of the two accused whiledemanding the money.
However, advocate Rebecca John, opposed the prosecution'stheory and contended that as per the FIR registered by thecrime branch on October 2, three persons of Jindal Group hadapproached Zee News.
"The meeting was at the behest of the complainant and notby us. The alleged tampering of the CAG report is notmentioned in the FIR and it is also not possible for others tofabricate it as it is a government report," John, appearingfor the news channel, argued.
She further said that the FIR is a "counter blast" to putmedia on back foot so that no programme could be aired againstJindal Group for their alleged involvement in allocation ofcoal blocks.
John also claimed that the police is acting as a tool forthe state by arresting the two mediapersons.