POCSO Blackmail Threat Against a Minor Couple — What the Law Says and How to Respond

Rohan Gupta had just turned 18 in early February 2025. He'd been in a relationship with a 17-year-old girl, Priya Sharma, since both of them were 17 — a perfectly ordinary story from Indore's Vijay Nagar locality. Close friends knew about it. Nobody had hidden anything. But trouble arrived from an unexpected quarter.

A mutual acquaintance, someone who had previously been close to Priya, had a bitter personal falling-out with his own girlfriend around mid-February 2025. Frustrated and looking for a way to vent, this individual got hold of some couple photographs of Rohan and Priya and then began threatening Rohan — warning him that he would approach the Vijay Nagar Police Station and file a complaint under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, alleging that Rohan had been in a relationship with a minor.

Rohan's family tried to resolve it informally first. That went nowhere. A local general practice advocate they consulted was unfamiliar with the specific interplay between POCSO provisions and extortion under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita — which, frankly, is not uncommon. The family then approached Advocate Sudhir Rao, whose domain-specific experience in criminal matters, particularly those involving POCSO and extortion, proved decisive. A counter-complaint under Section 308 BNS (extortion) was filed, and a preventive application under Section 482 BNSS for anticipatory bail was simultaneously moved. The blackmailer backed off. Rohan's situation stabilised without a single POCSO charge being registered against him.

You can read about this case in detail at https://sudhirrao.com/pocso-blackmail-threat-minor-couple-legal-remedies-india/