The Delhi high court has directed aman to offer one month community service at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital while quashing an FIR against him in 2019 for allegedly harassing a minor girl to share her private photographs in exchange for money. The court said the direction has been ordered as a “measure of accountability and reflection”.
₹50,000 penalty on the individual. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)” title=”he judge has also imposed ₹50,000 penalty on the individual. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)” />“The facts narrated disclose a pattern emblematic of the darker undercurrents of the social media age, where technology is misused to exert control, including fear and compromise dignity,” justice Sanjeev Narula said in his May 27 verdict, which was released on May 31.
The matter arose when the man filed a plea last month, seeking to quash the FIR registered in 2019, asserting that he had settled a deed with the girl on May 6 2025 and she had given a no-objection to quashing the FIR. The judge has also imposed ₹50,000 penalty on the individual, observing that the behaviour reflected a “gross misuse of digital platform and disregard for consent and personal dignity”.
In the nine-page order, he added, “The allegations pertain to a deeply troubling pattern of coercion and intimidation directed at a school-going minor, including threats to publicly disseminate her private photographs in exchange for money.”
Notably, the FIR against the man was registered under sections 354 (outraging woman’s modesty), 354C (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (outraging woman’s modesty by words, gesture), 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 12 (sexual harassment of a child) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The judge also agreed to revoke the FIR after the complainant said that the pendency of the criminal case was acting as a serious impediment to her future opportunities and personal relationships, including prospects to marry.
“At the outset, the court was not inclined to quash the FIR in a perfunctory manner. However, after a detailed and careful interaction with the complainant and her mother, it emerged that they have consciously chosen to move on from the incident. They expressed that the complainant is currently exploring matrimonial prospects, and that the pendency of a criminal case may result as a serious impediment to her future opportunities and personal relationships,” justice Narula added.