News Broadcasting
Zee News sting into graft in judiciary incenses Chief Justice who orders CBI probe
MUMBAI: Zee News might not be shining on the TRP ratings charts but it is certainly shining in terms of high impact news operations.
If Zee News began December with the busting of a currency notes scam in Nashik in western India’s Maharashtra state, it has ended January on an equally high news note.
An expose it did on falling judicial standards where it managed to get arrest warrants issued against against the President and Chief Justice of India for a paltry bribe of Rs 10,000 each has led to the Supreme Court ordering the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the allegations.
Zee News Mumbai correspondent Vijay Shekhar was the man behind the sting operation that allegedly exposed the “crumbling law and order standards in the Ahmedabad”. Shekhar had a chance meeting with some people in Mumbai who alleged they were issued false arrest warrants by Ahmedabad Courts on the instigation of a business rival.
Taking a cue from the meeting, he approached a couple of lawyers at Ahemedabad to file a false case against four high profile people from Delhi. With just Rs 40, 000 (@ Rs 10,000 per person) Sekhar was able to manage arrest warrants against the President of India and Chief Justice of India, among others.
Money exchanged hands and Sekhar was assured that the magistrate would do the needful. The “arrest warrants” issued by a metropolitan magistrate in Ahmedabad were not handed over to the police in Delhi, but to the Zee News correspondent.
A shocked Chief Justice on Wednesday directed the Gujarat High Court to immediately take action. According to a report filed by news agency Press Trust of India, the Apex Court had earlier issued notices to the Centre, the state of Gujarat, registrar general of Gujarat High Court, the “erring” Metropolitan Magistrate Brahmbhatt and Suresh Jethalal Sanghvi, who purportedly filed a false complaint “and on that basis the warrants”.
The bench comprising Chief Justice VN Khare, Justice SB Sinha and Justice S Kapadia has asked the CBI to submit its report by 6 February, the next date of hearing.
The court also issued notices to three advocates — Iqbal Kataa, Narender Chaudhary and Harish Bhawaniwala — who acted as middlemen between the complainant and the magistrate.
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
