Zee editors' bail plea rejected

A court in New Delhi rejected the bail plea of the two Zee editors, Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia, who were arrested on charges of  extortion. Meanwhile, Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra is to join the probe in the case. An NDTV report quoted the court as saying, “Investigation is at preliminary stage. It was (bail application) earlier dismissed by the duty Metropolitan Magistrate… No fresh ground has arisen since then… Hence in my considered opinion it is being dismissed.” [caption id=“attachment_543923” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sudhir Chaudhary. Twitter[/caption] The journalists face charges of extortion and criminal conspiracy. Punishment for the first is a maximum imprisonment of three years or fine or both. For criminal conspiracy, it’s up to six months or fine or both. Meanwhile, Chandra’s lawyer RK Handoo on Monday informed the Delhi Police that he was ready to join probe in the case involving the arrest of the editors, reported DNA. Jindal had alleged that Zee News tried to extort Rs 100 crore in exchange for not airing stories linking him and his group to the coal blocks allocation scam. He  had released a video-recording of meetings with executives of Zee TV and claimed it to be the proof that they were trying to extort money from him.