After posting abusive and explicit tweets criticising the media, Kapil Sharma has filed a complaint against journalist Vicky Lalwani, DNA reported. The actor-comedian has accused Lalwani of extortion, claiming that the journalist attempted to extort Rs 25 lakh from him.

The comedian filed a police complaint against his former managers Neeti Simoes and Preeti Simoes, and journalist Lalwani for starting false and malicious propaganda to defame him in digital media after he refused to pay him the amount, ANI reported.

On Friday, Sharma posted abusive tweets when was defending actor Salman Khan after his conviction in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case. He accused the media of spreading negative and fake news in his posts.

Sharma deleted the tweets soon, and said that his account had been hacked. “Hi all please ignore the previous offensive tweets as my account was hacked,” he reportedly said on Twitter. “Apologies for the inconvenience caused. Love and regards to all.” This tweet was also deleted.

Late Friday night, Sharma once again tweeted that whatever he wrote “came from his heart” and it was his team that deleted the earlier tweets. He also posted the images of the complaint filed against Lalwani.

Lalwani, who is the editor of online entertainment portal SpotboyE, said Sharma was apparently upset about some articles against him. “I was only doing my work,” Lalwani told ANI. “He called me and used abusive language, and also said offensive things about my daughter. He handles his success very well, but could not handle his fall.”

In another post published on his website, Lalwani said Sharma had called him on Friday evening to abuse and threaten him for reporting that the comedian was cancelling his TV shoots and that his Bollywood movie Firangi was a bad film. Lalwani also posted an alleged phone conversation between the two.

Sharma hosted the The Kapil Sharma Show which was taken off air in August last year, reportedly due to his ill health. The comedian returned to television last week with Family Time with Kapil, but new episodes of the show will reportedly not air this weekend since no episodes could be shot owing to Sharma’s absence.