NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed a chargesheet against journalist Upendra Rai and his associate Rahul Sharma for allegedly portraying himself as a “power broker” in the I-T department and extorting Rs 15 crore from a Mumbai based real estate company.Interestingly, despite naming “unknown” I-T department officials in its FIR registered in May first week, CBI has not named any government official in its chargesheet.One Balvinder Singh Malhotra, director of Mumbai based M/s White Lion Real Estate Developers Pvt Ltd, had approached the agency in May with a complaint against Rai.It was alleged that Rai approached Kapil Wadhawan, a relative of the promoters of the company, in September 2017 portraying himself as a “power broker” of I-T department and other government departments.Rai had also impressed on Wadhawan that he is a senior journalist having worked for Tehelka, Star TV and is connected to big media houses. He further informed Wadhawan that he had sensitive information from the I-T department relating to the raids to be conducted on the companies related/associated to White Lion, adding that action would be taken against the company under Benami Act as well.Subsequently, he threatened that he had the potential to tarnish the image of the White Lion companies and promoters due to his media connections.Finally, Wadhawan met Rai at his GK-1 Delhi residence during which Rai showed him a bunch of documents of I-T department wherein action was contemplated against various companies including White Lion. “This was followed by few calls from local media persons,” alleged CBI.“Upendra Rai demanded huge amount of money to settle the issue with I-T department and adverse media reporting. He claimed he had contacts in I-T office, Scindia House, Mumbai,” the agency alleges.“Succumbing to the pressure, a consultancy agreement had to be signed to work out an arrangement to pay the huge amount demanded. Thus, a consultancy agreement dated October 3, 2017 was prepared between M/s Upendra Rai and Associates and White Lion from October 1, 2017 till September 30, 2018,” it adds.As per the agreement, sum of Rs 15,19,50,000 (excluding GST and TDS) has been paid from Axis Bank Bandra account (of company) to Rai’s HDFC Bank account between October 2017 and April 2018, says CBI.The company later realized that Upendra Rai is a professional blackmailer and a tout in various government department, include I-T. Thus, White Lion discontinued the agreement.CBI has chargesheet him and Sharma for criminal conspiracy and prevention of corruption act.