In an attempt to establish that Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra was actively involved in the conspiracy to allegedly extort `100 crore from Jindal Steel along with two Zee network editors, Samir Ahluwalia and Sudhir Chaudhary, the Delhi police is examining an email exchanged between them which may prove this link.
According to the chargesheet filed in this case, 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 email ID to Mr Chandra, outlining the gist of stories planned against Jindal Group.
The chargesheet mentions that to this particular email, Mr Chandra responded on February 25, 2012, stating that he (Mr Ahluwalia) should collect more stories, thus clearly indicating that Mr Chandra was actively involved in the daily affairs of the news channel and specially monitoring the stories against Jindal Group.
“Since the email has been provided recently by the complainant company, unearthing the email’s trail and verifying its authenticity will take some time due to the involvement of a foreign service provider, the outcome would be submitted in the form of a supplementary chargesheet,” the chargesheet adds.
Importantly, 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 reveals that “an adverse inference can be drawn” against Mr Ahluwalia and Mr Chaudhary for not giving their voice samples during investigations.
“They did not agree to repeat the exact words as mentioned in the transcript of the recordings made at Hotel Hyatt Regency. These voice samples, comprising the exact words, were sought from them on the advice of CFSL experts,” it adds.
“Subhash Chandra also refused to undergo a lie-detector test citing health reasons. This test became necessary when he refused to cooperate with the investigation and explain the phone calls between him and his executive, immediately before and after their meeting with JSPL officials,” the document states.
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. The investigating agency has also clarified that despite taking the version of Jindal Steel and an interview of Mr Jindal, Zee News did not carry them while airing the stories against the group.
While levelling a serious allegation against Zee News, the chargehseet states, “They fabricated material to telecast news against Jindal Group with the intention to pressurise them in the course of their (Zee’s) extortion attempt.”