Canadian, two others held for rape, molestation

The Powai police, on Friday, arrested a Canadian national Peter David, 28, and his friends Nitin Singh, 25 and Lalit Paikre, 26, on charges of rape and molestation following a complaint registered by a 24-year-old woman.

The Powai police, on Friday, arrested a Canadian national Peter David, 28, and his friends Nitin Singh, 25 and Lalit Paikre, 26, on charges of rape and molestation following a complaint registered by a 24-year-old woman.

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The police said the woman was in a relationship with David for the past two years. She said he had promised to marry her but every time she asked him to set a date for the wedding he kept making excuses. The woman also told the police that during the two years he even made her have an abortion twice.

On Thursday, the woman decided she had had enough and went to David’s home in Powai. She told him to either marry her or she would approach the police and lodge a rape case against him.

Scared, David contacted his friends Singh and Paikre asking them to dissuade her from approaching the police. “The duo approached the woman at her residence in Hiranandani Complex at Powai and misbehaved with her on Thursday evening,” said an officer.

The woman then approached the Powai police and lodged a case against the three men. “We have booked David on charges of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, while Singh and Paikre have been arrested on charges of molestation. They were sent for a medical examination, the reports of which are awaited,” said senior police inspector of Powai police station Ashok Jadhav.

The woman met David in 2009 at a college in Vile Parle where they were studying, and was in a relationship ever since. The trio was produced in court on Saturday. The woman lives in Powai and her father runs a garment business, the police said.