Chandigarh: Hairstylist at Sector-9 salon booked for raping co-worker

The accused, Istakar Ali, alias Sunny Ali, was booked one month after the 22-year-old woman, hailing from Solan in Himachal Pradesh, first filed a police complaint in December 2022

Police have booked a hairstylist at a Sector-9 salon for raping his co-worker and forcing her to undergo abortion after she got pregnant.

The woman had alleged that introducing himself as one of the directors of a noted salon in Sector 9, Chandigarh, Ali had offered her a job in November 2021. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The accused, Istakar Ali, alias Sunny Ali, was booked one month after the 22-year-old woman, hailing from Solan in Himachal Pradesh, first filed a police complaint in December 2022.

The woman had alleged that introducing himself as one of the directors of a noted salon in Sector 9, Ali had offered her a job in November 2021.

After she started working, he took her to a hotel in Sector 19, where he raped her and also took her objectionable pictures. He even threatened to kill her and share her objectionable pictures with her fiancé. After she realised she was pregnant, on July 29, Ali took her to a doctor and forced her to undergo an abortion after signing some papers. A month later, he fired her from the job, she alleged.

Complainant alleges delay in police action

Ali was booked under Sections 376 (2) (n) (committing rape repeatedly on the same woman), 316 (causing death of quick unborn child by act amounting to culpable homicide) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code after the woman’s third attempt to get the police to act.

Eventually, she approached the office of the inspector general of police, following which a case was registered at the Sector-19 police station on Saturday.

Accused fired from job

Meanwhile, the salon confirmed Ali was their employee and they had terminated his services after registration of the rape case against him.