Zee boss faces 3-10-yr jail
Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra, who was chargsheeted by the Delhi police along with two editors of his television network, Sudhir Chaudhary, editor, Zee News and business head, as well as Samir Ahluwalia, editor, Zee Business and business head, for allegedly trying to extort `100 crore from Lok Sabha MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal’s firm Jindal Steel, could possibly face a sentence of three to 10 years if convicted.
Mr Chandra has been booked under various sections of the IPC like 120-B, 384, 420 and 201 which range from extortion, cheating and criminal conspiracy. If convicted under these sections, an accused can be imprisoned from three to 10 years. Similarly, both Mr Chaudhary and Mr Ahluwalia have also been booked under different sections of the IPC that range from extortion to cheating, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy. The court will now take cognisance of the matter on August 19.
The most significant part of the chargesheet, which is in possession of this newspaper, is the extensive technical investigations conducted by the Crime Branch by way of tracking call data records of the accused persons to establish how Mr Chandra was in constant touch both with Mr Chaudhry as well as Mr Ahluwalia when they were meeting representatives of Jindal Steel.
The chargesheet contains graphic charts showing detailed analysis of the call pattern between Mr Chandra (cell no. 9820543434, + 447507556472), Mr Ahluwalia (cell no. 9873242095) and Mr Chaudhary (cell no. 9811378800, 9811053253 and 9811492363). The examination of CDRs of these numbers reveals there was a constant frequency of calls between the three accused around September 13, 17 and 19, 2012 around the time when Mr Chaudhary and Mr Ahluwalia were meeting officials of Jindal Steel at Hyatt Regency. “It is evident from their CDRs that Ahluwalia and Chaudhary also kept Chandra in the loop about the meetings with JSPL officials,” the chargesheet states.
Further, the chargesheet mentions that in an attempt to demolish Mr Chandra’s defence that as non-executive chairman he did not have any knowledge or information about this case, Jindal Steel has produced an email sent by Mr Ahluwalia on February 24, 2012, from his ID samir@zeenetwrok.com to Mr Chandra, chandras@zeenetwork.com, outlining the gist of stories planned against the Jindal Group.
The chargesheet mentions that according to CFSL’s forensic report there is no “tampering, editing, interpolation and discontinuity” of audio-video recordings of Mr Ahluwalia and Mr Chaudhary with officials of Jindal Steel which was provided by the complainant.
The chargesheet also explains how the Zee network dropped stories against Jindal Steel when negotiations were going on between its representatives and editors of Zee Network.
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