New Delhi, Nov 30 : Two senior editors of Zee News, arrested on charges of trying to extort Rs 100 crore from a Congress MP Naveen Jindal's firm, were today sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a Delhi court.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao sent Zee News head Sudhir Chaudhary and Zee Business Editor Samir Ahluwalia to Tihar jail till December 14 after the Crime Branch of Delhi Police said their custodial interrogation was completed and they were no longer required in police custody.
“I have gone through the earlier order passed by the duty metropolitan magistrate, the investigation is in process... therefore the two accused (Sudhir and Sammer) are remanded to judicial custody till December 14,” the court said.
The two were produced before the court after expiry of their two-day police remand.
A fresh bail plea was filed in the court on behalf of the two journalist. The bail plea would be heard tomorrow.
The investigating officer sought time to file reply on the bail pleas of the two Zee News journalists.
“At this stage, second bail application has been moved by the counsel of the accused and the IO has sought time to file reply on bail, therefore the argument on the application will be heard tomorrow,” the court said.
During the course of proceedings, the police informed the court that three other senior officials of the Zee group had recorded their statements in the case.
“Zee News Sales Head Amit Tripathi, Managing Director of Dish TV Jawahar Goel and Zee Group Legal Advisor A Mohan have joined the investigation and recorded their statements,” the police told the court.
It also said out of five, three have joined the probe but Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka, Managing Director of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited are yet to join it.
Police also said they wanted to question top Zee officials to corroborate the evidence collected so far.
Both the arrested journalists have been booked under section 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC.
