Delhi Police had served two notices to Chandra last month asking him to join investigations after the arrest of Zee editors Sudhir Chaudhury and Samir Ahluwalia for their alleged extortion bid of Rs 100 crore from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's company for not airing news damaging to it.
In a letter to Delhi Police through his lawyer R K Handoo, the Zee Group Chairman claimed that "vested interests" have created a public "mis-impression" that he is deliberately not joining investigations.
Terming the campaign as "vicious", "malafide" and "unwarranted", the letter said Chandra has informed police on November 27 that he went ahead with his "pre-scheduled" meetings and engagements in India and abroad.
The letter also noted that as chairman of Essel Group, he has his meetings planned nearly two months in advance and any abrupt change not only affects the schedule of other businesses but also brings disrepute to him.
"That is why to honour his commitments in India and abroad, my client had well in advance and before your arrest action, requested you to adjourn the matter till his return from overseas.
"... because of the distorted campaign unleashed by vested interests, he is prepared to reschedule and cut short his overseas engagements and shall come to India only to join the investigations at your convenience forthwith," the lawyer said in the letter.
The lawyer said the date and time be indicated to him so that Chandra can be accordingly intimated and "he shall be present before you within 96 hours of service of notice".
Investigators have told a local court earlier that they were treating him as an accused as he knew about the dealings between his employees and Congress MP Naveen Jindal's company.
Zee Group has denied the allegations and demanded the immediate release of its two senior journalists, alleging that the police action was "illegal" and "designed for something else".
Advocate Rebecca John, appearing for Zee editors, vehemently opposed the prosecutor's arguments saying there is absolutely no embargo that stops her from seeking bail for her clients under any provisions of the CrPC.
"I have full right to move court for bail as the law is bail not jail," she said adding the agency is doing an "absurd" job by opposing the bail on such grounds.
She said, "The CAG report which was aired by Zee news was a constitutional body report tabled in the Parliament. As a channel editor of Zee group, it was my client's responsibility to put forth the truth."
John said that the editors had decided to run news showing Jindal's firm's alleged involvement in the allocation of coal blocks only as per the findings of the CAG report.
"As a journalist, it was my editor's right to show the corruption, was it a police right to register an FIR against them?," she asked.
"I (Zee editors) did pick and choose, does it become a criminal offence?," she said and added, "Has the CAG raised objection that we have shown a false report? It is not like that, we did our job."
She argued that it was Jindal's representative who had met the Zee editors for the deal and they themselves had never went up to them.
She told the court that this can be inferred from the e-mail received by Sudhir Chaudhary, in which JSPL officials had asked for the advertisement agreement as soon as possible.
She said she failed to understand as to who had been induced and who had been put under fear in the whole episode, adding there is no prima facie evidence to book them under extortion as there was no exchange of money.
Seeking bail for the two editors, the counsel said they have been booked for offences, which carry a maximum jail term of one and a half year.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Jindal group, told the court that the Zee Group editors had charged Rs 25 crore per annum from the Jindal firm for advertisement, where as officially they take Rs 2.5 Crore per year for the same.
"Was it not a case of extortion?" Gupta told the court.
He told the court that Zee head Subhash Chandra is also involved in the whole episode, to which Zee group's lawyer raised objections saying, "How is it possible that Jindal's counsel has access to the police documents, which are highly confidential?"
She said, "It means that the Jindal's representative are also sitting in the investigation with the police.
Jindal has alleged that Zee News had tried to extort Rs 100 crore in exchange for not airing stories linking his group firms to the coal block allocation scam.
Jindal had released a video-recording of meetings with executives of Zee TV and claimed it to be the proof that they were trying to extort money from him.
Jindal said the news channel told his firm's executives that if they did not spend Rs 100 crore on advertising, the channel would run negative stories on allocation of coal fields to his firm.
Both the journalists have been booked under section 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC.
The arrests on charges of extortion came following the registration of a case about 45 days ago on a complaint filed by Jindal's company with the Crime Branch of Delhi Police.
In a retaliatory move, Zee News had last month sent a Rs 150 crore defamation notice to the Congress MP, who too had filed a Rs 200 crore case against the media conglomerate claiming the TV channel had tried to extort money from his company.