Zee News senior editor Sudhir Chaudhary gets X-category security

NEW DELHI: The govt has given X-category security to Sudhir Chaudhary, the Zee News senior editor who was arrested in 2012 for allegedly trying to extort Rs 100 crore from former Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal. The Jindal Steel & Power chairman had released tapes purportedly showing Chaudhary demanding money.

This follows a threat perception analysis, after a personal staff of Jindal claimed to have received a phone call, with the unidentified caller allegedly threatening to frame Jindal after murdering Chaudhary, said an official.

Delhi police and paramilitary forces will provide the journalist round the clock security, they said. Chaudhary confirmed this. "I never asked for the security. It is based on the threat analysis," he told ET over the phone.



Jindal's staff wrote to the Delhi Police recently, informing about the threat. "As a law abiding company, JSPL reported the matter to the concerned authorities for further investigation in order to prevent harm to any person," a JSPL spokesperson said.

Chaudhary was also an accused in a forgery case registered by the Delhi Police over allegations that he used forged Comptroller and Auditor General document for airing his story on Jindal. The case however resulted in closure, as the police were unable to file charges.

Chaudhary was named in an FIR in 2013, for allegedly revealing the identity of the victim in the Nirbhaya gang rape by carrying an interview of her male friend, who was the lone witness in the crime.