Police issue lookout circular against 20-year-old SoBo man in rape case

A 20-year-old man from Mumbai has been booked and a lookout circular issued against him for sexually assaulting a schoolmate at a birthday party in 2020. The accused is currently studying in Australia and will be notified upon his return to India. The victim recently filed a police complaint after returning to India from London, where she had moved for further studies. The accused has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.

MUMBAI: The police have booked and issued a lookout circular (LoC) against a 20-year-old Cumballa Hill resident for sexually assaulting a 20-year-old schoolmate at a birthday party in 2020. According to Cuffe-Parade police officials, the man is currently studying in Australia for higher studies. “Once he returns to India, we will be notified about him,” said an official.

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The police said the crime took place in the year 2020 at a common friend’s house where both teens went to attend a birthday party.

“The accused, who was then 17, and a student at one of south Mumbai’s top schools, met the girl in February 2020 at a friend’s house at a birthday party, in South Mumbai, During the party, the accused took the victim into the bathroom where he sexually assaulted her and filmed the act which he uploaded online,” said the police officer.

Soon after, a Covid-induced lockdown was imposed, and after some days the woman moved to London for further studies, police said, adding that according to the woman’s statement, she went into depression after the assault and has struggled to deal with it since. She returned to India at the end of July, this year, and finally told her family about her ordeal after which they persuaded her to file a police complaint, police said.

The police had registered a case under sections 377 (Unnatural offences), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and for aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

He has also been booked under the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 for violation of privacy, for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form, for publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form and for publishing or transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit act.