Politician booked on charges of rape, illegal marriage

PALGHAR: Mira Road police on Thursday booked a senior politician for allegedly raping a woman on multiple occasions between 1999 and 2020 and marrying her illegally.

Police have also booked the 48-year-old politician’s accomplice for allegedly threatening the complainant in 2015.

HT is not naming the politician as revealing his name would jeopardise the identity of the rape survivor.

As a policy, HT never names rape survivors nor reveals any identifiers that could put rape survivors at risk. In this case, since the politician and the survivor lived together for 21 years, revealing his name would mean her identity could also be deduced.

“The woman had approached us early on Thursday morning. Based on her complaint, we registered a first information report (FIR) against the duo under sections 376(2)(n) [rape], 496 [illegal marriage], 417 [cheating], 323 [punishment for voluntarily causing hurt], 504 [intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace] and 506 [punishment for criminal intimidation] of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and also under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The two accused are absconding,” said senior inspector Sandeep Kadam from Mira Road police station.

In her complaint, the woman, who is also a politician, alleged that the accused made her campaign for him during the 2014

and 2019 Assembly elections and “used her for political gains”, the police said.

“Between 1999 and 2020, the accused had allegedly repeatedly sexually and mentally harassed the complainant. On June 13, 2001, he illegally married her at a Dahanu temple. The duo has a 16-year-old son from the relationship. She also alleged that in December 2015, the man’s aide threatened her to leave the country and settle in Dubai with her son. The accomplice allegedly told the woman that the accused enjoyed political clout and hence if she pressed charges against him, she would face repercussions,” said Kadam.