Delhi court to hear fresh plea by Zee News against Naveen Jindal

NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court is to hear on 14 January a fresh complaint filed by Zee News against steel magnate Naveen Jindal for allegedly calling News Broadcasting Standards Authority Chairman J S Verma who was considering the complaint against the news channel.

The matter was mentioned before CBI Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma alleging failure on the part of the Central Bureau of Investigation to take action against Jindal after receiving a complaint. According to the complaint, Justice Verma had also taken umbrage to Jindal?s conduct.

In another development, Judge Namita Kumari in the Patiala House Courts today fixed 8 March for pre-summoning evidence on the Criminal Defamation Case by Zee Business Editor Samir Ahluwalia against Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Jindal and 14 others relating to a series of exposes in the Coalgate scam.

The Criminal defamation has been filed against JSPL, and Jindal, Anand Goel, Haigreev Khaitan, Vikrant Gujral, Ravi Uppal, Arun Kumar Purwar, Ratan Jindal, Sushil Kumar Maroo, Sudarshan Kumar Garg, Hardip Singh Wirk, Ram Vinay Shah, Arun Kumar, Dinesh Kumar Saraogi, Tej Kishen Sadhu, and Rajeev Bhaduria.

Vijay Aggarwal, Counsel for Zee News Limited, said: ?The Court has taken cognizance of the offence of defamation which is punishable with two years of imprisonment under Section 500 IPC. The defamation against my client Mr. Samir Ahluwalia is based on false statements made during the press conference addressed by Mr. Naveen Jindal on 25 October 2012.?

Sudhir Chaudhary and Ahluwalia have earlier been implicated in a case relating to a series of exposes in the Coalgate scam involving Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal. The two Zee editors claimed that they wanted to expose Jindal?s attempt of silencing media coverage of Coalgate through a Rs One billion advertisement contract.