Zee News editor Sudhir Chaudhary filed a criminal defamation complaint against Congress MP and Jindal Steel and Power Limited chairman Naveen Jindal in a court here on Friday alleging that the latter made two false accusations against him during a press conference on October 25 that had maligned him.
Vijay Aggarwal, counsel for Mr. Chaudhary, said Mr. Jindal had said the editor conducted a fake sting operation when he headed another news channel, which was not correct as he was not chargesheeted by the police.
Mr. Aggarwal said Mr. Jindal also claimed that Mr. Chaudhary had appeared before the Broadcast Editors Association of India and made submissions there after which he was removed from the post of treasurer of the BEAI. Counsel added that this was not correct and that Mr. Chaudhary did not present himself before the BEAI in the matter.
Overruling objections of Mr. Aggarwal that the court was duty-bound to take cognisance of the complaint and had no discretion in the matter, Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja said he had to read the written complaint first before taking cognisance and passing an order on calling witnesses for recording pre-summoning evidence.
The matter has now been listed for January 3.
Mr. Chaudhary is a suspect in the case filed by JSPL accusing Zee group executives of attempting to extort Rs.100 crore in the form of advertisements to dilute a campaign launched against JSPL in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam.
