Zee News today said it has sent aRs 150 crore defamation notice to Congress MP andindustrialist Naveen Jindal, who too had filed a Rs 200 crorecase against the media conglomerate claiming the TV channelhad tried to extort money from his company.
"Zee News has granted a three-day time period to MrNaveen Jindal to withdraw all his unsubstantiated anddefamatory allegations against Zee News, failing which MrJindal would face civil and criminal actions initiated by ZeeNews," the media house said in a statement here.
At a press conference on October 25, Jindal, who is theChairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) had claimed thatthe Zee News group attempted to "extort" Rs 100 crore from thefirm for not airing stories against it on coal blockallocation.
Jindal had released a CD claiming that it has records ofattempts by Zee editors to strike a purported deal with JSPL.
On Thursday, JSPL had filed a defamation suit for Rs 200crore against four executives of Zee at Mumbai High Court.
"Notices for which have already been issued to SubhashChandra, Puneet Goenka, Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwaliaof Zee News and Zee Business. The case is likely to come forhearing next week at Mumbai High Court," the company said.
However, Jindal's charges were strongly denied by the Zeegroup.
"Zee News has condemned and completely rejected thedoctored evidence produced by Jindal. Zee News sees this as adeliberate attempt to malign the trustworthy televisionnetwork," the media house said.
JSPL is one of the companies named in the CAG report asone of the beneficiaries of the coal block allocation withoutauction.