The Mumbai police on Saturday registered a rape case against former Maharashtra minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Mr. Laxman Dhobale.
The complainant is a 42- year old woman who is employed as a clerk with a college in suburban Borivali. The college is run by a trust whose founder is Mr. Dhobale.
In her complaint she has alleged that between January 2011 and 2013 on three different occasions on the pretext of office related work Mr. Dhobale summoned her to his cabin.This is when she was allegedly beaten up by the accused. He also allegedly clicked her ‘obscene’ pictures and threatened to make them public if she did not give in to his demands, the police said.
“A case has been registered based on the complaint made by the victim and investigation is underway. Based on the evidence gathered we will take a call on whether or not to arrest him," Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone XI, Mr. Balsingh Rajput said. “Both the victim and the accused knew each other. We would be soon recording her statement before the magistrate under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC),” Mr. Singh added.
The police had sent the victim for a medical test on Sunday; the reports of the tests are awaited.
Mr. Dhobale has been booked under 376 (rape), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Incidentally, last month a case of cheating was registered by a few students against the college in which both the victim and the accused are an accused. The management has been accused of defrauding over 50 students by not giving them admissions despite charging a total of Rs. 16.06 lakh as fees from them.
“We are probing if the two cases are related,” Mr. Rajput added.
