Gurgaon lawyer, husband and aide held for extortion, false Pocso cases

The police said the accused posed as a father claiming his son had been sexually assaulted. Police investigations revealed that the complaint was linked to prior extortion cases.

Raids at the couple’s flat at Tata Primanti society in Sector 72 led to the recovery of Rs 1.14 crore cash, gold jewellery worth Rs 2.88 crore, 10 mobile phones, 11 SIM cards, laptops, pen drives, hard disks, passports and fake Aadhaar cards. (Express Photo)

The Gurgaon police Thursday arrested a 26-year-old lawyer, her husband and their aide for allegedly extorting money by filing false complaints of child sexual abuse against men involved in marital disputes with the lawyer’s clients.

The three were booked under sections 217 (furnishing false information to a public servant), 248(B) (harbouring offender), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 3(5) (criminal acts by multiple accused with common intention), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 308(6) (extortion), 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery of valuable security), 340(2) (using forged document as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 22 (punishment for false complaint) of the Pocso Act, as per a complaint registered on October 29 at the Sector 65 police station.

Accused Geetika Chawla, a lawyer practising in Gurgaon’s civil courts, her husband Harsh Kumar Thakkar and Hanuman, a balloon seller from Ajmer in Rajasthan, were produced in court Friday. Thakkar was remanded to five-day police custody while the couple got seven days.

Story continues below this ad

The case began with a complaint filed on October 29 by a man identifying himself as Rohit Kumar, a resident of Farrukhnagar, alleging that his eight-year-old son was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by an IT firm owner. The complainant submitted an Aadhaar card that turned out to be forged.

A special investigation team found the mobile number used by the complainant had figured in an earlier extortion case. Hanuman, who posed as Rohit, was arrested on November 6 from Ajmer. He told police that Chawla and Thakkar gave him a phone, a SIM card and a typed complaint to file the FIR.

During the initial questioning of Chawla and Thakkar, she admitted to representing the IT professional’s wife in a marital dispute case that was still pending. Police said the couple had plotted to frame the professional in a false rape case to force a financial settlement for the wife.

Story continues below this ad

The police said Chawla represented wives in alimony cases and used Hanuman to file false POCSO complaints against the husbands to force settlements. At least two earlier cases, one in May 2024 at the women’s police station (West) and another in June 2025 in Faridabad, followed the same pattern and were later found to be false.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Hitesh Yadav said that over 30 phones and 100 numbers were examined, with many of them linked to Chawla. At least two dozen men are suspected of having been targeted. A dozen other suspects linked to the couple are under investigation.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Tags:
Gurgaon