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
May 11,2020

New Delhi, May 11: Shares of Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) jumped 5 per cent in early trade on Monday after the Indian Railways said it will gradually resume passenger train services from May 12.

The company's shares gained 5 per cent to Rs 1,302.85 -- its highest trading permissible limit for the day -- on the BSE. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), it rose 5 per cent to Rs 1,303.55 -- its upper circuit limit.

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website.

The Indian Railways will gradually resume passenger train services from May 12 and will ask passengers to arrive at the station at least an hour before departure, the national transporter said on Sunday.

Initially, the all air-conditioned services will begin on 15 Rajdhani routes and the fare would be equivalent to that of the super-fast train, it said.

The special trains will run from New Delhi to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

All passenger services were suspended due to a lockdown announced on March 25 and the railways later started the on-demand Shramik Specials to ferry migrants stranded across the country. It, however, has been running freight and parcel services.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Mumbai, Mar 28: Doctors in Mumbai have not been spared by the novel coronavirus. As Mumbai’s count for Covid-19 cases went up to 58, an octogenarian doctor from Saifee Hospital passed away on Friday. He was a suspected case of coronavirus with co-morbid conditions like diabetes and had a pacemaker implanted, said a press release from the state health department.

As per a statement from Saifee Hospital, he underwent a CT scan at Saifee Hospital and was diagnosed positive for Covid-19. The surgeon was transferred to the special isolation facility at PD Hinduja Hospital where he subsequently died. Behranwala’s close relatives had come down from England and were under quarantine.

In a statement, Saifee Hospital, where Behranwala underwent CT scan, said, "All containment and surveillance measures have been implemented to ensure the safety of our staff patients and visitors. Saifee Hospital reiterates that the Hospital is fully operational," said Dr Vernon Desa, Director (Medical governance and clinical compliance) Saifee Hospital.

In the second case, an Andheri-based doctor, aged 53, has been tested positive along with his 43-year-old wife and 20-year-old daughter. The family doesn’t have a travel history. The doctor reportedly came in contact with the virus through a patient. MCGM has taken samples of 60 patients who came in contact with the doctor. "As of now, no patient from his contact has tested positive," Assistant Commissioner, Vishwas Mote.

Another doctor who practiced at Vakola tested positive after he came in contact with a person having travel history to Italy, later tested positive. The doctor has been admitted at Raheja hospital and samples of his close contact have been taken.

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Agencies
March 24,2020

New Delhi, Mar 24: Nearly 500 coronavirus cases have been reported in India so far, according to Health Ministry data on Tuesday.

According to the data updated Tuesday morning, the total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 492, including 446 active cases.

The figure includes 41 foreign nationals and the nine deaths reported so far, the Health Ministry said.

West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh reported a casualty each on Monday while seven deaths were earlier reported from Maharashtra (two), Bihar, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat and Punjab.

Thirty-seven people have been cured/discharged/migrated, it added.

The number of active cases at 446 saw an increase of 22 from last night's figure.

As cases of the viral infection surged, authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31.

Kerala has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 95, including eight foreign nationals, followed by Maharashtra which recorded 87, including three foreigners, according to the ministry data.

Karnataka has reported 37 cases of coronavirus patients, while cases in Rajasthan increased to 33, including two foreigners.

Uttar Pradesh has 33 positive cases, including a foreign national.

Telangana has so far reported 32 cases, including 10 foreigners.

Cases in Delhi rose to 31, including one foreigner, while Gujarat has reported 29 cases.

In Haryana, there are 26 cases, including 14 foreigners, while Punjab has reported 21 cases.

Ladakh has 13 cases, while Tamil Nadu has reported 12 cases, including two foreigners.

West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have reported seven cases each so far.

Chandigarh has six cases, while Jammu and Kashmir has four cases.

Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have reported three cases each, while there are two cases each in Bihar and Odisha.

Puducherry and Chhattisgarh have reported a case each.

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