Zee Media refutes Dhoni’s charges and moves SC

Mumbai: Zee Media Corporation has denied Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s allegations that it had telecast news about his alleged involvement in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scam with malafide intent, and has moved the Supreme Court in the matter relating to the cricket case.

Zee has maintained that it had relied on the sting operation and Justice Mukul Mudgal’s report on the story on Dhoni’s involvement in the IPL betting scam. On February 24 and 28, Zee Media’s Hindi news channel Zee News had telecast a sting operation in which Vindu Dara Singh revealed that IPL matches were fixed and the entire betting scam was a corollary of a power tussle between BCCI president N Srinivasan and former BCCI president Sharad Pawar.

“Zee Media Corporation Limited as a responsible news channel has ideated the story based on the said sting and also on the report filed by Justice Mudgal to the Supreme Court of India, which was widely reported by various media organisations including print media,” the channel said in a statement.

“The news channel has done the sting operations based on the facts which were in the public domain as series of stories were already filed/published by various media organisations from 10 to 14 February 2014.

“To further clarify the said issue, Zee Media Corporation Limited has already moved an intervention application along with the evidence in its possession before the Supreme Court of India in the pending SLP filed by the Cricket Association of Bihar,” it added.

Dhoni had filed a defamation suit against Zee Media, Zee News editor and business head Sudhir Chaudary, IPS officer Sampath Kumar and News Nation for telecasting what it called scandalous and libellous false reports and statements against him. Dhoni had also sought Rs 100 crore in damages from Zee Media Corporation for telecasting ‘malicious’ news which he claimed reported that he was involved in betting on and fixing IPL matches.