New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): A Delhi court Friday extended Zee Group chairperson Subhash Chandra's interim protection against arrest till Dec 20 in connection with the alleged Rs.100 crore extortion bid by two journalists of his channel.

The shield against arrest was also granted to his son and Zee managing director Puneet Goenka. Additional Sessions Judge Raj Rani Mitra, giving protection against arrest on their pleas for anticipatory bail, said: "Interim protection for the two is extended till Dec 20."

The court said it would hear arguments on their anticipatory bail plea on Dec 20.

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra said that after the interim protection granted Dec 6, Chandra and Goenka had joined the probe Dec 8 and 9. She said they had not been called to further join the investigation till Friday and so interim protection may be extended.

The court also heard arguments on the application for regular bail of two Zee news journalists.

Sudhir Chaudhary, head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia, head of Zee Business, were arrested Nov 27 on charges of allegedly attempting to extort money from the Jindal Group in exchange for not filing news reports linking the firm to irregular allocation of coal blocks. The company filed an extortion case.