Actor held for gang-rape lodged in 14-day custody

A TV actor arrested in Pune for alleged gang rape of a woman at a party has been remanded to 14 days judicial custody as police continue investigations.

The 40-year-old TV actor arrested from Pune last week in an alleged gangrape of a 24-year-old woman at a Civil Lines house party, has been sent to 14 days of judicial custody, police said on Sunday. Officers said in the court that they are yet to recover mobile phones of the woman and the accused.

Actor held for gang-rape lodged in 14-day custody

Police said the incident happened on August 10 and the complaint was registered on August 11. An FIR on charges of gangrape and assault were lodged after a woman, a Gurugram-based professional, alleged that the actor and his friend raped her inside a washroom at the party. Later, a woman assaulted her, she had said. She also alleged that the actor and others filmed the act and threatened to leak the video. The woman told police that they also took away her phone.

The accused was on the run for three weeks and was arrested on Tuesday last week. He was named by the woman as the “primary perpetrator” in the gang rape and assault. He is a Civil Lines resident and has appeared in several television shows, often in lead roles.

To be sure, none of the other accused were ever arrested in the case as two other accused received anticipatory bail before their arrest, an investigator said.

On Sunday, Delhi Police said the main accused was taken for a medical potency test at AIIMS as part of the criminal proceedings. The reports of the tests are awaited.

Investigating officers aware of the matter said they earlier received a tip-off that he was in Goa, but he later fled to Pune when the police reached there.

“The team has been looking for him. He was earlier traced to Goa but when the team reached, he slipped away. He was then traced to Pune where he was found living with a friend and was arrested on Tuesday,” a senior officer, on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday.

On Sunday, police said efforts are still being made to trace the woman’s phone and also recover the video which the accused purportedly recorded.

Senior officers said they searched the place of incident, the accused actor’s home and his family’s restaurant, but failed to trace the mobile anywhere.

“As per technical analysis, the phone was last active in Civil Lines area where the house party was organised. The actor also has a home in Civil Lines....” an officer said.

Further, police have not tried to search for the two phones in Pune where the man actually stayed and escaped arrest. When asked about this, investigators did not respond to HT’s queries.

Meanwhile, police said the woman claimed in the court that the actor raped her while others were witnesses. She alleged that the friends later came and an argument broke out. During the argument, a woman hit her and the accused later dropped her home and also threatened her. She had been invited to the party by a friend on Under Hill Road.

“We will be taking due legal action. We will change the sections in the FIR on the basis of what she confirms. The accused and the victim met on social media some time back,” said another officer.