Gurugram: Three held for extorting money after filing false sodomy complaint against Sector 48 resident

Gurugram, Nov 7 (PTI) The Gurugram police has arrested three individuals, including a woman lawyer, for allegedly extorting money from a man here after implicating him in a false case under the POCSO Act, officials said on Friday.

The trio allegedly targeted Gurugram residents who were having marital disputes, they added.

According to the police, the accused -- lawyer Geetika Chawla, her husband Harsh Kumar, residents of Tata Primanti Society, Sector 72, Gurugram, and Hanuman, a resident of district Ajmer in Rajasthan -- were arrested on Thursday.

After the arrest of Hanuman, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) reached the flat of lawyer Geetika Chawla from where Rs 1.14 crore in cash, jewellery worth Rs 2.88 crore, 10 mobile phones, 11 SIM cards, a laptop, hard disk, property papers and other documents were recovered, police said.

After recovery of a huge amount of cash and jewellery, the police also called the Income Tax Department to the spot, who started an investigation, they added.

All three accused were produced in a city court from where police have taken Geetika and Harsh on 10 days' and Hanuman on five days' police remand for questioning, an official said.

DCP (South) Hitesh Yadav said that on October 29, a man who identified himself as Rohit from Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad filed a complaint against Vishal Aggarwal, a resident of Park View Society in Sector 48, accusing him of sodomising his eight-year-old son.

Following the complaint, an FIR was registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at Sector 65 police station.

An SIT was formed to probe the matter after Aggarwal alleged extortion. He said calls were made to him from unknown numbers demanding money and pressuring him to settle the case, the officer added.

The DCP said, during investigation, it was revealed that the accused Hanuman, a hawker in Gurugram and native of Ajmer in Rajasthan, had made the complaint against Aggarwal under a fake identity.

A police team was dispatched to Ajmer to investigate the matter. The probe revealed a conspiracy which involved Geetika and her husband Harsh.

The DCP said during the preliminary investigation, it was revealed that the couple scripted the complaint themselves and got it written by Hanuman before submitting it to the police.

According to police, advocate Geetika fights marital dispute cases. She first acts as the husband's lawyer, then the wife's, and during this time, gathers information about both their financial positions and secures action against the husband under the POCSO Act.

Geetika graduated from Meerut University in 2023 with a law degree and began practicing in 2024. Soon after, she then began litigating marital dispute cases.

Geetika believed that such cases were less laborious and could generate a good income. Her husband Harsh was a bakery supplier, police said.

"We are questioning the accused after taking them on police remand. Their involvement might surface in more cases," DCP Yadav said. PTI COR ARB ARB ARB