Court wants further probe in Zee case
A Delhi court has refused to take cognisance of the chargesheet filed against Zee Group, including editors Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia, for their alleged extortion bid from Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s firm.
Observing “glaring and material lacunae” in the case with respect to investigation, the court also directed the police to further probe in the matter.
The court directed deputy commissioner of Delhi police’s Crime Branch to get the matter investigated by an officer not below the rank of an ACP and file before it “further final report at the earliest”.
“Keeping in view the facts of the case and the investigation done in the matter, it seems that the matter should be further investigated by a police official not below the rank of an ACP,” chief metropolitan magistrate Amit Bansal said.
The police had filed its chargesheet against the trio under various provisions of the IPC, including Sections 384/511 (attempt to extortion), 420/511 (attempt to cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence).
Mr Chaudhary and Mr Ahluwalia were earlier arrested in the case but they are currently on bail in the case filed by Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s firm.
Dealing with the sections invoked against the three accused, the court noted that the sections of cheating and extortion have been invoked in the charge sheet against the accused, which is not permissible as per law.
“Further, from the chargesheet the basic ingredients of cheating are absolutely not made out because there is no element of deception or fraud being played by the accused persons upon the complainant. This aspect also requires further investigation by the police,” the court said.
It also said that further investigation is required to be done on the aspect of Mr Ahluwalia and Mr Chaudhary’s voice samples which have not been taken by the police as yet though they are “very important to connect” them with the case.
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