Cong spokesperson's brother held on rape charges

The Lonavala City police have arrested Sunit Waghmare for allegedly raping a 28-year-old woman on the pretext of marriage.

In her complaint, the woman alleged that Sunit allegedly raped her multiple times after promising to marry her.

According to her statement to police, in November 2019, Sunit allegedly took her to a hotel in Lonavala to discuss his divorce case with an advocate and allegedly raped her for the first time. The FIR copy which is in the possession of the Free Press Jour nal, the victim alleged that since then Sunit has raped her multiple times.

When the victim started stressing for marriage, Sunit allegedly said that his wife is not ready for divorce and declined to marry her. Fed up with his repeated denials, the victim finally approached Bhoiwada police station and lodged her complaint. The police then registered zero FIR under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376(2)(N) (repeated rape), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The case was later transferred to Lonavala City police, since the offences took place in their jurisdiction.

"We have arrested the accused on Sunday, he was produced before the court which granted him police custody till March 5, further investigation is underway," said police inspector, Dilip Pawar, incharge of Lonavala City police.

Sunit is brother of Congress spokesperson Raju Waghamare.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that Sunit is not related to Congress party, he had been removed from Congress for acting against the party during the 2017 BMC elections.