Zee News CEO Alok Agarwal addresses a press conference over the arrest of two senior journalists of Zee News last evening in
connection with a sting operation that was carried out by steel tycoon
and Congress MP Naveen Jindal who accused the channel of extortion.
Sudhir
Chaudhary, the head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia, the head of Zee
Business, were arrested on Tuesday evening by the Crime Branch of Delhi
Police following the registration of an extortion case about 45 days ago
on a complaint by Jindal's company.
The MP has alleged that the
channel had tried to extort
Rs.
100 crore in exchange for not airing unfavourable stories linking him
and his group to the recent coal scam. The journalists will be produced
in a court in Saket today. Read
moreAgarwal said that the journalists were arrested to deflect action against coal block allocation scam and that it was in fact Jindal who offered money to the editors to buy their silence. "The arrest of our journalists are illegal and Naveen Jindal tried to bribe Zee executives," insists Agarwal.