A Delhi court on Tuesday directed the police to investigate the defamation complaint filed against Congress MP Naveen Jindal and 16 others by Zee News Editor Sudhir Chaudhary. Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja asked the Station House Officer (SHO) of Tughlak Road police station here to probe the role of Jindal and 16 other officials of his firm Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) saying, “Keeping in view the fact that 15 out of 17 accused are residing outside the territorial jurisdiction of this court i.e. PS Tuglak Road and the fact that the law laid down in section 202 of the CrPC...it is directed that SHO, PS Tuglak Road (or his deputy), shall conduct an investigation into the allegations made in the complaint.”

The court fixed the matter for further proceedings on February 15.

Chaudhary, who filed his complaint through his counsel Vijay Aggarwal, had earlier said Jindal and JSPL officials had made "deliberately false" statements and registered a "false case" against him in the alleged Rs. 100-crore extortion bid incident.

The court ordered the  police to seize the minutes of the meetings and other documents of the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) regarding “termination of the membership of the complainant (Chaudhary) and his removal from the post of Treasurer of the BEA”.

Chaudhary and Zee Business Editor Samir Ahluwalia were arrested on November 27, 2012 on a complaint by Jindal's firm that they had demanded R100 crore as a deal for not airing "negative" news reports against JSPL, in connection with the coal block allocation scandal.