Mumbai: Assistant police inspector booked for raping colleague

The 30-year-old woman police officer has alleged that API Sandip Peese, 32, had promised to marry her and raped her repeatedly from January 2014 to April 2021.

An assistant police inspector (API) from Dongri police station was booked on Friday after a female colleague filed a complaint of rape against him.

HT Image

The 30-year-old woman police officer has alleged that API Sandip Peese, 32, had promised to marry her and raped her repeatedly from January 2014 to April 2021. She has also claimed that since she was from a lower caste, Peese’s mother Alka, 50, and his brother Sagar, 30, got him married elsewhere and assaulted her and her relatives when they went to talk to them.

The complainant had joined the police force in 2013 and she was posted at Dongri police station after passing her exam. Peese was also posted there and as a temporary staying arrangement, the senior inspector had given them accommodation in police quarters where the woman stayed in one room and male officers including Peese stayed in the room opposite hers.

A few days later, Peese began going close to her. However, when she objected, Peese proposed to her. She later agreed to marry him. The two then began meeting each other outside the police station. On January 1, 2014, Peese entered the victim’s room and raped her by promising to marry her after he was promoted.

Peese then raped her repeatedly at several places. He also asked her to keep their affair a secret. “When the senior police inspector asked me about the affair, I did not say anything,” the complainant said.

On April 2 this year, the woman learnt that Peese had taken holiday and gone to his village for his wedding. When she contacted him, he told her that his parents had tested positive Covid-19. The woman alleged that Peese’s mother and brother abused and assaulted her and her family members and got Peese married to another woman.

“Peese had also blackmailed me by threatening to post objectionable photos on internet,” the officer said.

On Friday, the victim approached Dogri police station and lodged a complaint against Peese on charges of rape, cheating, threatening, assaulting and also under relevant sections of the Atrocities Act.

“We have registered a case against Peese, his mother and brother, and are investigating the case,” said another officer from Dongri police station.