Sextortion Complaint: Step-by-Step Process and Documents

By Advocate Panchanand Shaw, Bar Council of West Bengal · Published 1 Nov 2026 · Court process

A sextortion complaint is filed on cybercrime.gov.in and at the police station, where the FIR is registered under section 173 of the BNSS, 2023 for extortion under section 308 of the BNS or criminal intimidation under section 351, with IT Act sections 67 and 67A for the publication threat.

A sextortion complaint is filed at three places in the first day: the 1930 helpline if any money has moved, the cybercrime.gov.in portal, and the police station with jurisdiction, where the FIR is registered under section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The charge is extortion under section 308 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 or criminal intimidation under section 351, with sections 67 and 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 added for the publication or transmission of the material.

What makes the complaint work is not the strength of the wording. It is the order of the attachments. A sextortion complaint that arrives with the profile URL, the demand message, the payment reference and a dated account of the first contact gives an investigating officer a lead within minutes. A complaint that arrives as a narrative with no screenshots and no handles has to be sent back for the basics, and the delay is exactly what the blackmailer is counting on.

Before you file: the ten minutes that matter

Do not start by writing. Start by preserving. The person threatening you may delete the profile, and the platform may take days to respond to a preservation request, so the record on your own device is what survives.

Take a screenshot of the profile with the username and the URL visible in the same frame.
Take a screenshot of the first demand message, with the date and time visible.
Export the full chat from the app if the app allows it; screenshots of selected messages are weaker than a complete export.
Note the payment handle, the account number, the UPI ID and the amount if money was already paid.
Note the phone number, the email address and any other identifier the person used.
Write a one-page chronology from the first contact to the last demand. Dates, times, and what was said. Not feelings — dates.
Put all of it in a folder on the device and in a second place that the person cannot reach.

Then stop using the account that the person is contacting. Do not delete it, because deleting it destroys the record. Mute it, and check it only in the presence of someone you trust or with a screen recording running.

The law the complaint rests on

Section 308 of the BNS, 2023 defines extortion: intentionally putting a person in fear of injury, in order to dishonestly induce the delivery of property. The threat to publish an intimate image is the injury, and the demand for money is the inducement. Section 351 of the BNS covers criminal intimidation, including threats to injure reputation and threats to publish defamatory material, and it applies even where no money is demanded. Where the person actually publishes the material, section 356 of the BNS deals with defamation and section 77 of the BNS with voyeurism, which covers capturing or transmitting an image of a private area without consent.

On the electronic side, section 67 of the IT Act, 2000 punishes publication or transmission of obscene material, and section 67A covers sexually explicit material. Section 67B applies where the material involves a child. Section 66C covers identity theft where a fake profile of the victim is created or the victim's account is taken over, and section 66D covers cheating by personation where the first contact was made under a false identity. Section 66 covers the computer-related acts — the unauthorised recording, the account access, the storage.

Where the person targeted is under eighteen, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 governs. The complaint goes to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police, the child's identity is protected, and the material is never forwarded through an ordinary app. The penalty structure and the procedure are different, and the complaint should say the age plainly at the top.

Procedurally, section 173 of the BNSS, 2023 governs registration. If the station refuses, the application to the magistrate is made under section 175(3) of the BNSS. Electronic evidence needs the certificate under section 63 of the BSA, 2023, which identifies the device, the person producing it, and the process by which the record was taken. Under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, platforms must act on complaints within the stated timelines and must preserve records for the periods the rules require, which is why the platform report should be filed on the same day as the police complaint.

The complaint, step by step

If money has moved, call 1930 first. Give the amount, the reference, the beneficiary handle and the time. Ask for the report number. A freeze request is time-limited by how long the balance survives, not by how complete your narrative is.
File on cybercrime.gov.in. Choose the sextortion or image-based abuse category. Upload the screenshots, the profile URL, the demand and the payment reference. Save the acknowledgement number in two places.
Report to the platform's grievance officer. Ask for two things in the same email: removal of the material and preservation of the account records. Quote the IT Rules, 2021 timelines. Keep the ticket number.
File the written police complaint. Address it to the officer in charge of the station with jurisdiction — usually where the demand was received or where the payment was made. Attach the chronology and the evidence, name the accused if known, and ask for the receipt stamp on your copy.
Record the FIR number and the investigating officer's name. Under section 173 of the BNSS the FIR is registered and investigated; the complainant is entitled to a copy of the FIR free of cost. Keep it.
If the police decline, go to the magistrate. An application under section 175(3) of the BNSS asks the magistrate to direct an investigation. Attach the earlier police complaint and its receipt, or a written record of the refusal.
Ask for protection of your identity and the material. Where the case involves a child, the law protects identity. In adult cases, the court can be asked to restrict public access to the intimate material and to direct that it not be copied or circulated. The application is made at the stage the case reaches court.
Follow up in writing, on a schedule. A short written reminder every fortnight, each one dated, creates a record that the investigation was not progressing. That record matters if a petition for a monitored investigation is later filed.

Documents, and what each proves

Document	What it establishes	How to get it
Profile screenshot with URL and username	The identity used for the contact	Your own device
Chat export with timestamps	The demand and the sequence of escalation	App export function
Call log and video call record	When contact happened and for how long	Phone's call log; app history
Payment reference and bank statement	That money was paid and to whom	Bank or UPI app
Section 63 BSA certificate	Admissibility of the electronic record	Prepared by the person producing the device
Platform ticket and takedown confirmation	That the report was made and when	Grievance officer's response
Written chronology signed by the complainant	Consistency between the complaint and the evidence	Prepared by you or your lawyer

What the investigating officer will do with it

If the accused is identified, the investigation is conventional: notice or arrest, seizure of the device, forensic examination, and a charge sheet. If the accused is not identified, the investigation runs through requests. The platform is asked for registration data, login IPs and device identifiers. The telecom operator is asked for subscriber details of the number used. The bank or payment aggregator is asked for the KYC of the beneficiary account. Each request takes time and each depends on the previous one producing a lead.

Where the demand came from outside India, the request moves through the mutual legal assistance route or through the platform's law enforcement channel, which is slower. In those cases the practical value of the Indian complaint lies in the freeze, the takedown and the record, rather than in an early arrest.

What decides the outcome

Whether the victim engaged. A record of refusal and silence is powerful. A record of bargaining and repeated payments is harder to run, because the defence will say the payments were voluntary and the relationship consensual. The offence still stands, but the first record is far easier to prove.

Whether the material exists. A demand made without any real image is still extortion. Investigators will still try to locate the file, because its existence aggravates the case and its non-existence proves the threat was fabricated — both of which help the complainant.

Whether the accused can be identified. This single factor decides whether the case ends in a charge sheet or in an unexecuted warrant. Platform records and the payment trail are the two routes to an identity, which is why the account numbers in the complaint matter as much as the screenshots.

The age of the victim. It changes the statute, the forum and the sentence. If there is doubt, state it and let the police verify.

Whether the takedown happened quickly. Early removal limits the harm and supports the case; delay increases both the damage and the number of separate transmission offences.

Mistakes that weaken the complaint

Sending the material to a friend for advice. Each forward is another transmission. Describe the message instead, and show it in person.
Deleting the account to escape. The evidence goes with it. Mute the account and keep the record.
Paying "to buy time". Payment confirms that more can be extracted. It does not buy time; it extends the demand.
Confronting or abusing the person in chat. It invites retaliation and gives the defence material to use.
Filing only with the platform. A takedown is not an investigation. File with the police on the same day.
Waiting for the material to be posted before reporting. The offence is complete when the threat is made. Waiting only increases the harm.
Hiring a "cyber recovery" agent. Recovery frauds target sextortion victims. No legitimate agency asks for an advance fee to remove material or to trace a person.

A sextortion complaint is decided by four attachments: the profile, the demand, the payment trail and the chronology. Everything else is argument.

When to involve a lawyer

The reporting steps should not wait. A lawyer is worth consulting when the accused is known and the matter will be contested, when the material has been published and an urgent takedown or restriction order is needed, when the victim is a child and the POCSO procedure has to be followed exactly, or when you are the person accused of the offence and need to understand what the record actually shows before you respond to a notice.

In West Bengal the complaint is filed locally and the trial is heard by the City Sessions Court or Bankshall Court, with bail and quashing applications going to the Calcutta High Court. Readers who want the procedural background can start with the West Bengal cyber crime page; if you have been served with a notice or named in an FIR, the criminal defence material explains the first steps. To discuss your own facts confidentially, use the contact page. Nothing in this article is a substitute for advice on your specific record, and in a case of this kind the specific record is everything.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I file a sextortion complaint in India?

Report on cybercrime.gov.in under the sextortion category, call 1930 if money has already been paid, and file a written complaint at the police station with jurisdiction. The FIR is registered under section 173 of the BNSS, 2023 and a free copy is given to you.

What documents should I attach to a sextortion complaint?

The profile screenshot with the username and URL, the chat export with timestamps, the demand message, payment references and bank statements, the call log, and a signed chronology. Electronic records need the certificate under section 63 of the BSA, 2023.

What if the police refuse to register my sextortion complaint?

Apply to the jurisdictional magistrate under section 175(3) of the BNSS, 2023, asking for a direction to investigate. Attach your earlier written complaint and its receipt, or a written record of the refusal, and set out the facts in an affidavit.

Can my identity be protected in a sextortion case?

In a child victim case the law protects identity throughout. In adult cases the court can be asked to restrict public access to the intimate material and to direct that it not be copied or circulated. The application is made when the case reaches court.

What happens if the sextortion accused is never identified?

The investigation then depends on platform records, IP logs and the payment trail. If those produce no lead, the case remains open but unexecuted. The freeze on the beneficiary account and the takedown are still worth pursuing on their own.

How long does a sextortion investigation take?

Registration is same-day if the complaint is complete. Identification depends on platform and bank responses and can take weeks. A charge sheet follows only after an accused is identified, so cases with an unknown accused often stay pending far longer.

Information for general guidance only and not legal advice. Provisions cited follow the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.

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