Zee Chairman Chandra, son questioned by police

New Delhi: Zee Group Chairman Subhash Chandra and his son were questioned for over 9 hours by Delhi Police. The police questioned them in connection with the alleged Rs 100 crore extortion bid from Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s company. Chandra arrived at the Crime Branch office in Chanakyapuri at 2 pm while son Puneet Goenka reached there at 2:30 pm along with his lawyers. The questioning went on till 11:30 pm. Asked whether Chandra and Puneet will be asked to appear before the police again, a senior police official said they will take a call on this later. Zee Editors Sudhir Chaudhury and Samir Ahluwalia, who had been remanded to two days police custody by a court today, were brought to the crime branch office where Chandra and his son were being questioned. Chandra had secured an interim protection from arrest till 14 December from a Delhi court. \ [caption id=“attachment_550798” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Zee Group Chairman Subhash Chandra. PTI[/caption] In a late night statement, Zee Group said both Chandra and Puneet extended their fulles cooperation to Delhi Police so that the truth emerges. “We expect justice and a fair inquiry. The fullest cooperation ended attempted misimpressions that Mr Chandra and Goenka were avoiding joining the investigations,” it said. “Now that Chandra and Goenka have joined the investigations, police have no ground to oppose the bail of the two editors,” Zee News Ltd.’s counsel Vijay Aggarwal said. During questioning, sources said Chandra and Puneet denied the allegations and claimed it was an attempt to scuttle news reports on coalgate scam. Sources said Chandra was asked whether Alhuwalia had telephoned him and informed him about the discussions with Jindal’s company. Police had claimed to have phone call records to show that Alhluwalia spoken to Chandra for nearly three minutes explaining about the discussions. Chandra’s questioning came after the police sent three notices to him asking him to join the investigations in the case in which Chaudhury and Ahluwalia were arrested late last month following investigations into a complaint filed on 2 October. Chandra had earlier told the police that he could not appear before them as he was out of the country but later on 3 December he told them he will be ready to appear within 96 hours of notice. Police then asked him to appear before them today. Investigators have told a local court earlier that they were treating Chandra as an accused as he knew about the dealings between his employees and Jindal’s company. Zee Group has denied the allegations of extortion and demanded the immediate release of its two senior journalists, alleging the police action was “illegal” and “designed for something else”. PTI