Delhi Police arrested two senior editors of Zee group on charges of extortion a month after Congress MP and Jindal Steel Chairman Naveen Jindal had registered an FIR alleging that they had demanded Rs 100 crore to drop a news report implicating his company in the coal block allocation scam. The Jindal group had later done a sting operation to expose the journalists. The duo has been booked for extortion and criminal conspiracy. The charges if proven in court carry a maximum punishment of 3 years in jail. Zee has called the arrests a cover to the coal scam.
Here are some other sting operations that caused a world of hurt to reputations and governments...
In 2001, Tehelka magazine launched 'Operation West End' to expose the corruption in the halls of India's Defence ministry. Reporters posed as arms dealers and several officials were caught accepting bribes on video, including Laxman. The sting led to the resignation of George Fernandes, the then Defence minister.
When Sanjeev Nanda, the grandson of a former Navy Chief, mowed down seven people in his BMW in 1999, a sting operation by NDTV revealed how his lawyer R K Anand had attempted to persuade the key witness to change his testimony. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld Anand's conviction in the matter
After the infamous murder case of model Jessica Lall was closed when the witnesses turned hostile, Tehelka magazine and later, Star TV, embarked on a sting operation in 2006 to expose how accused Manu Sharma had influenced the witnesses to speak in his favour. It led to the case being reopened and the conviction of Sharma
Source : Google
In 2005, the entertainment industry was left shaken when India TV sent an undercover reporter posing as a starlet to actors Shakti Kapoor and Aman Verma and alleged that they had sought sexual favours from her. The operation left a serious dent in their reputations and marked the arrival of India TV in the mainstream arena
The scandal that rocked Parliament took place in 2008 when CNN-IBN telecast clips of an Amar Singh aide (then allied with the Samajwadi Party) giving money to a BJP MP. Three BJP MPs had waved around notes in Parliament alleging that they had been paid by the UPA to cast their votes in favour of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Last year, all 6 accused received bail in the matter
