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indiantelevision.com Team
MUMBAI: An unexpected beneficiary of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)?s charges against Congress MP Naveen Jindal is Zee Media, earlier known as Zee News.
The investigative agency has booked Jindal and former minister of state for coal Dasari Nararyan Rao through an FIR, alleging irregularities on coal-block allocations and misrepresentation of facts, something Zee Media has been talking about all this while.
This not only comes as a major development in the ongoing coal-block allocation probe, but also adds a new twist in the tale to the infamous Zee-Jindal fiasco.
Zee Media had earlier been accused of demanding money to go easy investigative stories relating to Jindal?s involvement in the coal-block allocation case.
The CBI has accused Jindal of misrepresenting facts about past allocations in order to obtain a coal block in Jharkhand in 2008. The then minister of state for coal Rao, has been accused of being a part of the conspiracy, as a year after obtaining the coveted coal-block, Jindal brought shares worth Rs 2.25 crore in Rao?s company Saubhagya Media at an exorbitantly hiked price of Rs 100 per share as opposed to its then listed price of Rs 28.
Now that CBI has formally accused the troubled MP along with Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), Zee probably has something to rejoice about. Which it did in a statement today.
Said Zee Media:
"Zee Media has consistently focused the Nation?s attention to massive irregularities in allocation of all coal blocks during the period 2006-2009, as has been registered by CBI on reference of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). For this we have been relentlessly attacked by the accused and his accomplices within the system. Our Editors have even faced illegal detention and our management has been maligned and unfairly targeted.
"Today?s CBI FIR against a resourceful politico-corporate like Shri Jindal reaffirms what Zee Media, and discerning sections of the media have consistently reported, as also serious conflict of interest in his continuance inside the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs.
"It is equally worrying that in their report on the so-called paid media, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology leaned on depositions by representatives of the accused to recommend a government-mandated media regulator in the country. It must be emphasised that the proceedings were conducted ex parte and the committee?s recommendations came out without serving the basic tenet of natural justice, which is to hear both sides."
Zee Media CEO Alok Agarwal and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) MD and CEO Punit Goenka, declined to comment.
To read the entire comment from Zee News click here:
Zee Media lauds CBI for FIR, nation-wide probe on prime accused of coalgate scam
