Top Indian Media Honchos in Jail over Bribe allegations by Jindal Group in Coal Scam
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The massive coal scam which is the latest in the series of billion dollar scams afflicting India in recent times has turned uglier. India’s top 
conglomerate the Jindal group which is led by members of the ruling party had recently alleged extortion threats from one of India’s top media groups – Zee group led by Subhash Chandra. The Jindal Group has alleged that they were asked for a bribe of around $18 million to stop the coverage of bad news on the conglomerate by the publications and TV channels of the Zee group. Secret video recordings of the meetings in which the bribe demand was made had been given to the police. Now the police has arrested the heads of the Zee News and Zee Business channels over the allegations. This is the first time when the heads of top TV channels are being arrested over bribery allegations.
Read about Coal Advantages & Disadvantages.
Note bribery in media has become quite rampant with the Election Commission in India recently reacting strongly and asking media groups not to ask for money for putting out positive stories on election candidates. The Coal Scam which was getting all the headlines recently has become a damp squib with other corruption scandals taking the center stage.
The Zee Group has come out fighting on all cylinders alleging that the Congress led government is leading a vendetta against the media industry in India and likening it to the Emergency that took place in India in 1975 where martial law conditions were imposed. The 4 main pillars of the country look more and more like a circus than a functioning state these days.
Zee News today denied that two senior editors tried to extort money from Congress MP Navin Jindal and described their arrest as as an attack on the freedom of the press by the government, led by the Congress.The TV news channel has been accused by steel tycoon and Congress MP Navin Jindal of extortion – he says he was threatened that unless he agreed to 100 crores of advertising on the channel, the channel would run stories on how the government allegedly favoured his firm while allocating valuable coal fields.
Mr Jindal’s firm filed a police case against Zee’s top executives nearly two months ago. Yesterday, the Delhi police arrested Sudhir Chaudhary, head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia, head of Zee Business. Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, which is investigating Mr Jindal’s complaint, today issued notice to Subhash Chandra, the owner of Zee TV.