Gang extorting men in marital disputes busted; lawyer among three arrested

The Gurugram police have busted a gang allegedly involved in extorting money by filing a false POCSO case and arrested three accused, including a woman lawyer. The accused were identified as advocate Geetika Chawla, her husband Harsh Kumar, residents of Tata Primanti Society, Sector 72, and Hanuman, a resident of Ajmer district in Rajasthan.

Police said the trio targeted men facing marital disputes and blackmailed them using fabricated sexual assault cases. The arrests were made on Thursday following an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

During a raid at the lawyer’s flat, police recovered 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. Following the recovery, the Income Tax Department was called in to conduct a parallel probe.

All three were produced in a city court, which granted 10-day police remand for Geetika and Harsh and five-day remand for Hanuman.

DCP (South) Hitesh Yadav said the case came to light after a man named Rohit lodged a complaint on October 29, accusing Vishal Aggarwal, a Sector 48 resident, of sodomising his 8-year-old son. The FIR was registered under the POCSO Act at Sector 65 police station. However, when extortion demands were made to Aggarwal, the SIT was formed to investigate.

“Artificial intelligence was also used in the investigation. We are questioning the accused after taking them on remand. Their involvement in more cases may surface,” said DCP Yadav.

During the probe, police found that the ID used by Hanuman was fake, and that the gang used a balloon and toy-selling cover to avoid suspicion. Investigators also discovered that Geetika drafted complaints herself, later getting them rewritten in Hanuman’s handwriting to mislead police.

Geetika reportedly earned her law degree from Meerut University in 2023 and began practice last year, while Harsh earlier worked as a bakery supplier.