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indiantelevision.com Team
NEW DELHI: Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra and his son and Zee News managing director Punit Goenka were today granted interim protection from arrest by a Delhi court till 14 December in the Rs one billion alleged extortion complaint filed by Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal?s firm against two editors of Zee news channel.
Additional Sessions Judge Raj Rani Mitra said the question of extension of interim bail would be decided on 14 December.
The judge passed the order after hearing arguments on the anticipatory bail plea of Chandra and his son, in which their counsel pressed for interim protection from arrest for joining the investigation. They have been asked to appear before the Delhi Police on 8 December.
Senior advocate Geeta Luthra and Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for the duo, had contended that their clients are ready to join the probe if the police give them the assurance that the two will not be arrested during the time of interrogation. "We (Chandra and Goenka) will join the investigation as has been asked by the police for 8 December and even before, if required.
"But, if the police decides to arrest us, then it should give at least five days? time so that we can argue the matter at length on some other day," the counsel argued. They had also said that their clients should be granted protection so that they can join the probe without fear of arrest.
Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan opposed their plea saying, "We cannot commit or assure that they (Chandra and his son) will not be arrested. The moment we get a lead of the alleged extortion made on behalf of Zee Group by their two editors, we will arrest them."
The prosecutor contended that the investigation till now and the evidence point towards the alleged involvement of Chandra and Goenka in the whole conspiracy.
He also said the two jailed editors (Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia) have not acted alone and that the whole episode was planned in collusion with the seniors of the Zee group in a conspiracy hatched to extort Rs 100 crore for their channel.
Both Chaudhary and Ahluwalia, presently lodged in Tihar jail, have been booked under section 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.
A Delhi court had on 28 November rejected the bail plea of ZNL editors, Sudhir Chaudhary (Zee News) and Samir Ahluwalia (Zee Business), and sent them to two-day police custody till 30 November.
Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia were arrested on 27 November on charges of extortion by the crime branch of Delhi Police on an FIR filed by a JSPL official last month.
The company alleged that ZNL editors Chaudhary and Ahluwalia had demanded Rs 1 billion worth of advertisements from the company in return for favourable coverage in the scam involving allotment of coal blocks, wherein JSPL is one of the companies that allegedly made windfall gains from arbitrary coal block allocations.
Earlier, the Broadcast Editors? Association (BEA) had removed Zee News editor and business head Sudhir Chaudhary from the post of treasurer and primary membership of the body after a three-member committee set-up to probe the matter had found the two acting in an in-appropriate manner.The removal followed a sting operation carried out by Jindal?s company during meetings in a Delhi hotel.
The video recordings from a hidden camera purportedly showed Zee Business Editor Ahluwalia demanding money from Jindals in exchange for going soft on coverage of alleged involvement of Jindal?s firms in the coal scam.
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