Following the Indian Expressreport on the Essar Group’s alleged attempts to influence people in positions of power by granting them favours, which incriminated both journalists and politicians, Sandeep Bamzai—the editor of Mail Today—and Anupama Airy—the energy editor of Hindustan Times—have both resigned from their respective organisations, while Meetu Jain—the deputy news editor of Times Now—has been put on notice as the channel has initiated an inquiry against her.
Here we reproduce five sets of correspondence in which officials from the Essar Group are concluding taxi arrangements for the journalists mentioned in the emails. The emails include requests for taxis that were put forth by the corporate relations department of Essar on behalf of Bamzai, Airy and Jain, along with an email which was meant to finalise lunch arrangements and “two black label [sic]” for Mayur Shekhar Jha—consulting editor with News24. The last email refers to accommodation arrangements for Raghavendra—resident editor at Dainik Bhaskar Jharkhand—who had been, according to Lav Kumar of Essar Steel India Limited (ESIL), “very much supportive as far as our work concerned [sic].”
Sandeep Bamzai
Anupama Airy
Mayur Shekhar Jha
Meetu Jain
Raghavendra