Court could not hear Zee editor's plea to monitor probe

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mukesh Kumar could not take up the plea filed by Zee news Editor Sudhir Chaudhary as various parties to the plea were engaged in another court in a related matter.

ACMM Kumar deferred the hearing on the plea to January 11 as none of the parties turned up before him. The court had yesterday fixed the matter for today.

The Zee group counsel was arguing before a different judge on the application for anticipatory bail of the group Chairman Subhash Chandra and his son, who have the apprehension that they might be arrested in the case of the alleged Rs 100 crore extortion bid from Jindal's firm.

Zee news Editor Chaudhary had moved the court earlier for monitoring the investigation into the case. He had moved the court accusing the Delhi police of carrying out a one-sided probe into the complaint lodged against him and three others.

The court had issued notice to the Delhi police on December 11 asking it to respond by December 19 to Chaudhary's plea filed through his counsel.

In his application, Chaudhary who was recently released on bail, had sought the seizure of the call records of all phones used by Jindal and his relatives to try to get in touch with Zee group chairman.

He has also demanded interrogation of Naveen Jindal, his brother Prithvi Jindal and uncle Sitaram Jindal.

Chaudhury and Zee Business Editor Samir Ahluwalia were arrested on November 27 on a complaint by Jindal's firm that they had demanded Rs 100 crore as an advertising deal for not airing negative news against the firm in connection with the coal block allocation scandal.