Jindal Accuses Zee Channels of Rs.100 Crore Blackmail

Jindal Steel chairman Naveen Jindal Thursday accused Zee News and Zee Business TV channels of demanding Rs.100 crore worth of advertisements in lieu of dropping negative stories about his firm, and said the company has lodged a formal police complaint.

The Zee group denied Jindal's charges, saying "an attempt was being made to muzzle the media and the voices against the businessman-politician".

But Jindal told a press conference convened to release a purported video in support of his allegations that Zee Group's editor had sought advertisement commitments for the channels to stop airing reports related to a coal block allocation scandal in which Jindal Steel is said to be involved.

"Sudhir Chaudhary, editor of the group, told our team they will continue to defame us if we did not agree to pay Rs.20 crore per year worth advertisements," Jindal, a Congress MP, told reporters here.

"The initial demand of Rs.20 crore then went up to Rs.100 crore," Jindal said.

He claimed Jindal Steel filed its complaint and the police registered the first information report (FIR) Oct 2 against Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra, Punit Goyanka, Sudhir Chaudhry and Samir Ahluwalia.

However, Delhi Police only confirmed registering the FIR against the two channels and refused to name the people listed in Jindal group's complaint.

Jindal said the Zee group began showing reports Sep 7 on their channels against the company owned by Jindal group, after which a team from Jindal Steel started talking to the channels.

"Initially, Zee Business and Zee News demanded Rs.20 crore from Jindal Steel in the Sep 10 meeting but in the second meeting with Jindal Steel, Sudhir Chaudhary demanded Rs.100 crore (Rs.20 crore per year)," said Jindal.

Jindal, levelling allegations against Chaudhary, said the media organisation threatened him and his company that they would continue broadcasting their reports if their demands for advertisement commitment was not made.

"After the last meeting with Sameer Ahluwalia and Sudhir Chaudhary on Sep 19 when we were not ready to give them money, the media group again started running stories on Sep 24," he said.

On Oct 19, the media group also started accusing Jindal Steel of offering them bribes to stop airing of reports on coal block allocations, Jindal said.

"When News Broadcasters Association (NBA) called the media group for clarification, they said they organised meetings with the Jindal group for a sting operation. But they could not give proper evidences to NBA in support of their statement," said Jindal.

Jindal also distributed to media persons the video CD showing Chaudhary purportedly making the demand.

Noting that his company has been in business for 40 years and had never received a blackmail threat like this, Jindal said: "We decided not to succumb to the blackmail."

Soon after the press meet began, Zee Group employees raised slogans against Jindal, claiming he was lying about the charges levelled against the channels.

After making his statements and airing the CD, Jindal left the meet without answering queries of the media, saying it was not the proper time to respond to questions.

In another development, an RTI activist from Chhattisgarh reached the venue of Jindal's press meet and demanded that the MP be arrested for unleashing violence against him.

Ramesh Agarwal claimed he was shot at by Jindal's security personnel July 7 at Raigarh in an attempt to kill him.

He said Jindal Steel and Power Limited senior security officer Brig. (retd.) K.K. Chopra and deputy manager S.N. Panigrahi surrendered in a Raigarh court last Friday in connection to the armed assault on him.