Rape accused alleges slander

Plastic surgeon writes to cyber police, says post-extortion bid actress creating fake FB profiles and posting defamatory content about him

Over a month after a television actress accused a renowned plastic surgeon, Dr Viral Desai, of rape, the doctor has written a complaint to senior cyber police official, claiming he was subjected to defamation after a failed extortion bid. Desai has accused the actress of extortion, defamation and criminal intimidation by creating a false page on social media and publishing defamatory and intimidatory material against the doctor.

According to reports, the rape case was filed by the actress after Desai allegedly first botched up a procedure on her face and then forced himself on her inside the changing room of his clinic on August 9. Soon after the incident, Desai received a number of calls and emails from people of his fraternity, informing him of a woman’s Facebook profile, in which she was uploading defamatory content about Desai.

Police said Desai immediately checked the social media profile. Desai claimed in his complaint letter that the profile was made by the actress but under a fake name. Surprisingly, two more Facebook profiles were created in fake names with the sole intent of posting defamatory content against Desai, said police.

On September 9, Desai wrote a complaint letter to Vishal Thakur, the deputy commissioner of police (cyber) and attached screenshots of the fake social media profiles created by the actress, where she had sent friend requests to several friends of the doctor. Moreover, Desai also attached screenshots of emails sent by other doctors in his professional circuit. DCP Thakur said the investigation is underway and it is too soon to comment on the matter.

Moreover, Desai’s advocate, Manish Agarwal, submitted a complaint letter to Santacruz police station, requesting them to investigate the case and collect CCTV footage from the office of actress’ lawyer, in which he is seen making extortion demand in exchange for not filing an FIR against Desai.

“It will also be clear from the said recording that their purpose in doing so was to extort money by showing the consensual relationship between the complainant and Dr Viral Desai as rape,” reads the letter.