Part 1
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The Inside Story
He tricked the 35-year-old housewife into believing that her husband had been detained in Germany in connection with a sex racket; he called her to a mall and told her she would have to “have sex multiple times” if she wanted him to save her husband; after being spotted by a guard, he fled, but not before making her sign a ‘consent’ document
In a bizarre and horrifying incident, a man posing as a Crime Branch officer convinced a 35-year-old housewife to meet him saying her husband had been detained in Germany in connection with a sex racket, and then forced her to let him have his way with her.
The unidentified accused took the woman to the terrace of Raghuleela mall, where he started forcing himself on her. File pic
He called her to a Vashi mall and told her that the only way she could save her husband was if she agreed to “have sex multiple times”. The molester made the victim disconnect her landline and kept her busy on the phone all through to keep her from calling her husband and finding out the truth.
The accused calls up the woman, gets to know that her husband has left for Frankfurt then calls back to say he has been detained there. Illustrations/Amit Bandre
He paid a mall security guard Rs 500 to keep mum, when he chanced upon them and, after molesting the woman, he even made her sign a document stating that whatever had happened had her consent. The police have launched a massive manhunt for the molester, who is believed to have targeted other women in the past in the similar manner.
He makes her head to the Crime Branch office in Kalanagar and then asks her to go to the Raghuleela Mall in Vashi, where he snatches away her phone
On February 6, the 35-year-old housewife from Vile Parle, who holds a Bachelor of Management Studies degree, got a call on the landline from the accused, who claimed to be a member of the Cyber Crime Cell (part of the Crime Branch) from Pune.
He takes her to the terrace and forces himself on her. When he is caught by a security guard, he pays the latter off with Rs 500
The man asked her about who all were part of her family and what they did. Without realising what was coming her way, the woman told him everything, including that her husband had left for Frankfurt, Germany, the same morning.
The woman realises she has been fooled only after reaching home and talking to her husband. She then files a police complaint the next day
“A short while later, the man called back on the landline, claiming that he had been asking her for the details because her husband had been detained in connection with a sex racket in Frankfurt. When the woman panicked, he consoled her and promised to help her out.
He asked for her cellphone number so that he could get in touch with her and tell her what to do next,” said an officer from Vile Parle police station, on the condition of anonymity. Police said that without giving the survivor enough time to call and check up on her husband, the accused called her up on her cellphone.
“He asked her to disconnect the main wire from her landline and reach the Crime Branch office in Kalanagar immediately,” the officer added.
Mall meet
After the survivor reached Kalanagar, the accused asked her to head to Raghuleela Mall in Vashi. After he saw her in the mall, he went up to her and snatched the phone from her hands.
Speaking to mid-day, police inspector Mahadev Nimbalkar from Vile Parle police station said, “All this while, the caller kept her busy on the phone so that she wouldn’t get time to call her husband or any family member and find out what had happened.
After snatching her phone at Raghuleela Mall, he told her that if she wanted her husband to be released instantly, she would have to have sex with him multiple times.” “The victim was too shocked to react and, left with no other option, went to the terrace of the mall with the accused, who started forcing himself on her,” he added.
Affidavit
Officers said that when the accused was about to rape the woman, a security guard from the mall arrived at the scene. He was, however, given Rs 500 by the accused and asked to leave. The interruption prompted the accused to make him hand over the survivor’s phone to her and ask her to go home.
He also made her sign a document stating that everything that had happened had her consent, following which he would get her husband released. The woman realised she had been fooled when she was able to contact her husband after reaching home.
She informed her in-laws about the incident and filed an FIR with the Vile Parle police on February 7. The accused has been booked under Sections 170 (Personating a public servant), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The Vile Parle police have managed to get a photograph of the accused and have formed two teams to locate and nab him.
Lost phone
Police had managed to get hold of the number from which the call was made to the survivor and called the SIM card’s registered holder in for questioning. He, however, told the police that his phone had been lost a couple of days before the call was made. The police suspect the accused had found the phone and used the SIM card to make the call.
