Jindal goes public with ‘extortion CD’

October 26, 2012

Jindal_Plays_extortion

New Delhi, October 26: Jindal Steel chairman Naveen Jindal on Thursday accused TV channel Zee of "extortion'' and "blackmail'' for allegedly demanding Rs 100 crore worth of advertisements in lieu of blanking out negative reports.

Earlier, Jindal's Jindal Steel and Power Limited(JSPL) had lodged an FIR on October 2 against Zee executives, Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia, for alleged extortion, and had backed up his charge with 90 minutes of video recordings of an alleged sting on them.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Jindal said that he had been forced to go public with the "expose'' because of the channel's relentless "propaganda'' against his company. Jindal alleged that Zee News editor Choudhary and Zee Business editor Samir Ahluwalia had met executives from JSPL to suggest that they would stop the campaign over the allocation of coal blocks to JPSL if company committed to pay Rs 20 crore to the TV channel in advertizing revenue. They subsequently hiked the demand to 100 crore, Jindal alleged.

He screened the CD of the "sting" on the two Zee channel heads allegedly asking for money for more "positive coverage" as supporting proof.

The charge was rejected by Chaudhary and Ahluwalia, who issued a statement to "condemn" and "reject" the CD. "We see this as a deliberate attempt to malign and to defame us... We see the attempt today by Naveen Jindal to come out with a video as a deliberate attempt to not only suppress us but also silence the growing demand for an independent probe in the Coalgate scam.''

They asserted their channel would not be deterred by "diversionary tactic'' adopted by Jindal and JSPL, and would continue to report on the Rs 1.86 lakh crore Coalgate scam.

Recounting events at the press conference on Thursday, Jindal accused Zee of telecasting factually incorrect and defamatory stories from September 7 to 13. Jindal said that executives of the two companies met between September 13 and 19. "During this time there were no stories on JSPL. The channel kept pressuring us to give them a cheque. Dabaav dal rahe the ki aapki badnaami karte rahenge (We were under pressure that if we did not pay up Zee would continue to defame us),'' he said.

Jindal said that faced with the persistent "blackmail" and "extortion", the company decided to expose them. "We felt that we should expose them (Zee).''

"Our firm has been in business for 40 years and had never received a blackmail threat like this," alleged Jindal.The press conference was repeatedly interrupted by a Chhattisgarh-based RTI activist Ramesh Agrawal, who alleged being victimized by the Jindal group.


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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone into self-quarantine after developing sore throat and fever, and will get himself tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday, officials said on Monday.

They said the chief minister, who is also a diabetic, was feeling unwell since Sunday afternoon.

"He has mild fever and sore throat since Sunday afternoon. As advised by doctors, the chief minister will undergo COVID-19 test on Tuesday morning," officials said.

Officials said the CM had attended a Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning and thereafter, he did not attend any meeting.

The chief minister has been holding most of his meetings via video conferencing from his official residence for past two days.

This come as the number of coronavirus cases in the national capital crossed the 28,000-mark with 1,282 fresh infections while the death toll climbed to 812 on Sunday, a health bulletin issued by the Delhi government said. According to the health bulletin, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi rose to 28,936 with 1,282 fresh cases.

A total of 51 fatalities were reported on June 6, the bulletin said, adding that these lives were lost between May 8 and June 5. It, however, said the cumulative death figure refers to fatalities where the primary cause of death was found to be COVID-19, according to a report of the Death Audit Committee on the basis of the case-sheets received from various hospitals.

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News Network
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday said his party will register a "massive win" in the high-stakes Delhi Assembly election, counting for which began amid tight security at various centres set up to carry out the exercise.

Initial trends suggested the ruling Aam Aadmi Party marching ahead, but the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders maintained that their party would win.

The counting began at 8 am and will be held in multiple rounds, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

Bhadohi, Feb 11: With just two days left for the State Budget Session, a widow from Uttar Pradesh''s Bhadohi district has accused BJP MLA Ravindranath Tripathi and six others of sexual harassment over the years, the police said.

The incident is likely to cause considerable embarrassment to the ruling Yogi Adityanath government.

Bhadohi Superintendent of Police (SP) Ram Badan Singh said: "The woman, whose husband died in 2007, met the BJP MLA Ravindranath Tripathi''s nephew in 2014. She said that she was physically exploited by him for many years on the pretext of marriage."

The complainant also said that the nephew then got her lodged in a Bhadohi hotel for about a month during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, "where she was raped by the MLA and his other family members".

The case has been handed over to the Additional Superintendent of Police for further investigations.

A case is yet to be registered.

The Uttar Pradesh Budget Session starts from Thursday.

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