Pune: Man held on charges of rape and blackmail

PUNE: A 40-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday on the charge of raping his neighbour over the past year by threatening to make her photographs viral.
The Khadki police have booked the man under sections 376 (rape) and 328 (whoever administers to or causes to be taken by any person any poison or intoxicating) of the Indian Penal Code, following a complaint lodged by the woman on Wednesday.
“The woman and the suspect lived in the same locality and knew each other. In February last year, the woman had a dispute with her husband. The suspect, on the pretext of helping her, asked her to move out of her house with her children,” an officer from the Khadki police station said.
“He even arranged her stay in a city-based lodge,” the officer further said.
According to the woman’s complaint, the arrested man soon visited the lodge. “The woman said the man put sedatives in her tea and raped her while she was unconscious. She also alleged that the man took her obscene photographs in the lodge,” the officer said.
The first-informatiohn report stated that the suspect blackmailed the woman, claiming that he would uiploadher photographs online and make them go viral if she disclosed the incident to anyone. “She said the man continued to blackmail her and raped her in different lodges in the city over the year,” the officer said.
“We have arrested the suspect based on the woman’s complaint. Our probe is on,” the officer added.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)