Delhi Police's crime branch has registered an FIR against Zee News editor Sudhir Chaudhary, another top executive of Zee Business plus a few others for allegedly trying to extort crores of rupees from a mining company owned by Congress MP Naveen Jindal.

The FIR, lodged under sections relating to extortion, alleges that Sudhir Chaudhry, business head & editor of the Zee group, and Zee business' Sameer Ahluwalia, as well as others, illegally demanded Rs 100 crore in lieu of ditching certain stories relating to coal mine allocation scandal.

The company also alleged that the channel started running a series of malicious news items maligning the Jindals after the company refused to pay the money demanded by Zee group people.

When contacted, Sudhir Chaudhry refuted the allegations as baseless, fake and made-up. He blamed the Jindal's company of trying to malign the channel after the channel exposed the company's part in the coal scandal.

Defending the Zee group, Chaudhry said, "All our stories were based on proper documentation and investigations. Every media group ran the stories. Does this mean that all of them were trying to extort money from them?"

Chaudhry added that the FIR was retaliation to the Zee group's unyielding campaign against corruption.

The investigation of the case has reportedly been given to the Inter-State Cell (ISC) of police.