Molestation case against Sena corporator: 19-yr-old complainant alleges threats from police, others to withdraw case

Shiv Sena leader Bhagat has been granted anticipatory bail, the woman has accused the police of keeping her virtually under house arrest. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar, 23rd February 2017, Mumbai.

A 19-year-old woman who has levelled charges of molestation against Shiv Sena corporator Namdev Bhagat of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has said that her family is being pressured by police and others to withdraw the case. While Bhagat has been granted anticipatory bail, the woman has accused the police of keeping her virtually under house arrest. The woman had filed a case against Bhagat at Uran police station on August 20. “My family members immediately started getting calls and the callers threatening them and asked for the case to be withdrawn. Our landlord called us to say that we will have to vacate the house,” she said.

When the woman approached Nerul police, the police sent women constables — now positioned inside her house — sources said. “They are not letting her answer calls or even respond to our messages. She wants to speak to the media about the threats, but the police are not letting her,” a family friend said.

Nerul police denied that they were pressuring the complainant in any way and said the constables had been sent for the woman’s security. Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said: “She had claimed a threat to her life and so we have sent some constables to her house and deployed personnel around her house. We can’t allow the identity of a victim to be disclosed hence, she is not allowed to take calls from mediapersons. She is free to step out and do what she pleases.”

Meanwhile, Uran police said Bhagat has been granted anticipatory bail. “But we are investigating. If the incident has taken place, we will ensure that enough evidence is collated to arrest Bhagat,” a senior officer said. The woman had approached the Uran police station claiming that she was molested by the corporator after she approached him seeking intervention in stopping a transfer order issued to her father, a security guard in a nearby school.