Two Zee scribes to face cops' queries for two days

Metropolitan Magistrate Ankit Singhla sent the two journalists to police custody till Dec 10.u00a0Chandra and his son and Zee group"s managing director Puneet Goenka were questioned till 11.30 p.m. and confronted with the two arrested journalists in the case, police said.u00a0

Chandra and Goenka were then allowed to go and their questioning will continue Sunday, police added. u00a0They appeared before police in connection with the alleged Rs.100-crore extortion bid from Jindal group of companies. Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan earlier sought three days" police remand for the two Zee journalists - Sudhir Chaudhary, head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia, head of Zee Business.

He said that Chandra and Goenka were not available for questioning when the two editors were arrested, so now both the journalists were require to be brought face-to-face with them.u00a0Mohan said: 'They (journalists) were remanded in police custody on Nov 28 for two days. During the police custody, police tried to get Chandra and Goenka to join the investigation.'

Chaudhary and Ahluwaliae were arrested here Nov 27 on charges of attempting to extort Rs.100 crore from Jindal Power and Steel Ltd. in exchange for not filing news reports linking the firm to the irregular coal blocks allocation. The Jindal group filed an extortion complaint against them.u00a0On Dec 6, Chandra and Goenka got interim protection from a Delhi court against arrest till Dec 14. The two journalists Nov 30 were sent to 14 days judicial custody.

Police booked both the journalists under Sections 384 (extortion), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Before arresting Chaudhary and Ahluwalia, police also charged them under Section 420 (cheating).