Jindal airs Zee sting, media its dirty linen

Congress MP and Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) chairman Naveen Jindal came out in the open on Thursday alleging extortion and wilful defamation by Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra and senior executives of news channels owned by his group. Speaking to the media for the first time after his company filed an FIR with the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, he also released video clips of alleged conversations between his own executives and Zee News editor and business head Sudhir Chaudhary and Zee Business editor and business head Samir Ahluwalia during their three meetings held on October 13, 17 and 19.

The footage comprising audio and video clips recorded using spy cameras by JSPL executives was submitted along with the FIR and was sent for forensic verification by the police. The forensic reports have yet to be prepared. "The matter was under investigation; so we had decided to not speak with the media. But Zee has been misusing their platform and running one-sided negative reports against us and making all kinds of allegations... We, therefore, decided to present our side of the story and release this footage so that people can make the right judgement," Jindal told The Indian Express.

The entire recording done by JSPL runs into about two and half hours but on Thursday, only about 15 minutes of footage was released. It shows Chaudhary and Ahluwalia negotiating an advertising deal with JSPL executives in return for stopping their negative reports in the alleged coal block allocation scam. Referring to a previous meeting, JSPL executives seem to be protesting that R100 crore demanded by Zee is too much, especially when Ahluwalia had first asked them for only R25 crore for four years. To that, both Ahluwalia and Chaudhary say there is some "communication error" as the demand was for "R25 crore per year for four years". Ahluwalia is heard saying: "Ho sakta hai ki hamare kahne sunane mein kuch idhar udhar ho gaya ho (It seems there has been some miscommunication)."

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