Naveen Jindal accuses news channel of Rs 100 crore blackmail

Jindal Steel chairman Naveen Jindal today said his company has made a formal police complaint against Zee News and Zee Business for allegedly demanding Rs 100 crore worth of advertisements in lieu of dropping negative stories.

Congress MP and Jindal Steel chairmanu00a0Naveen Jindal (File pic)

"Sudhir Chaudhary, editor of the group, told our team they will continue to defame us if we did not agree to pay Rs 20 crore per year worth advertisements," Jindal, a Congress MP, said at a press conference.

"The initial demand of Rs 20 crore then went up to Rs 100 crore," Jindal said.

Jindal Steel registered the first information report (FIR) with police Oct 2.

He said the media group had shown some stories on their channels against the steel group after which a team from Jindal Steels started talking to the channels.

Jindal also distributed a CD showing Chaudhary making the demand.

Jindal said his company has been in business for 40 years and had never received a blackmail threat like this.

"We decided not to succumb to the blackmail," said Jindal. u00a0