In a shocking and disturbing incident, a 39-year-old man, allegedly raped his friend’s 77-year-old paralysed mother at a private hospital in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, police said on Saturday.

According to reports, on Wednesday, April 19, the accused visited his friend at the hospital whose mother was admitted there after suffering a paralysis stroke.

Giving details, a police official said the accused offered to keep an eye on the woman in the hospital room while her son went outside to buy some medicines for his mother.

However, as soon as the elderly woman’s son stepped outside, the accused allegedly raped her, the official said, adding that he was caught in the act by a nurse who opened the room and witnessed the man sexually assaulting the old woman who was unconscious.

He said that upon witnessing the disturbing act, the nurse raised an alarm following which the accused was nabbed by the hospital staff and later handed over to the police.

The official said that accused was arrested and was booked for rape under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the victim was provided medical and psychological support after the incident.

Further investigation is underway, he said.

In a similar incident, in March this year, a 22-year-old man was arrested for the alleged rape and murder of a 78-year-old woman in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district.

As per reports at the time, the accused, identified as 22-year-old Monu Singh, allegedly raped and killed the elderly woman in a village under the Unchehra police station on March 9 after the victim’s body was found in his house.

Initial reports suggested that the accused had strangled her to death with a towel found near the her body, however, the victim’s autopsy also confirmed that Monu Singh had raped her before murdering her and fleeing the scene.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) plan to name a Lingayat leader as the Chief Ministerial candidate in next month’s Karnataka Assembly elections will not work anymore as the people have learned not to trust them, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who recently joined the Congress after quitting the saffron party, has said.

In a statement to news agency ANI, Shettar said the BJP hurt his self-respect which in turn means hurting the self-respect of the Lingayat people, adding that the people of the state are intelligent enough to see through the BJP’s lies and deceit and not to vote for them.

Jagadish Shettar, who quit the BJP after being denied a ticket for the May 10 polls and later joined the Congress on the very next day, claimed that many senior Lingayat leaders of the BJP will join the Congress along with their followers in the coming days.

Shettar said that the BJP’s plans for a for a “Lingayat CM” campaign won’t work in the saffron party’s favour as the time for that has passed.

The senior politician asked why the BJP didn’t start such a campaign earlier and claimed that the right-wing party’s decision was only motivated by the coming elections, not for the betterment of the Lingayat community…. “people will not believe in their campaign even if they declare a Lingayat CM.”

Jagadish Shettar became the second senior Lingayat leader within a week after former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi to resign form the ruling BJP and join the Congress.

Shettar termed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call to senior Karnataka BJP leader and former minister KS Eswarappa, as the BJP way of doing damage control.

Eswarappa had recently conveyed to BJP’s central leadership his decision to retire from electoral politics and had requested to not consider fielding him in the assembly polls from Shivamogga, from where he was a five-time MLA.

Jagadish Shettar is set to contest from Hubbali-Dharwad Central Assembly constituency on a Congress ticket against BJP’s Mahesh Tenginkai.

Elections for the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly are scheduled to take place on May 10 and the results will be declared on May 13.

Satyapal Malik paid a visit to a police station in Delhi’s RK Puram area on Saturday after the cops reportedly detained a group of farmers’ leaders from his home who had come there for a meeting with the former Jammu and Kashmir Governor.

Rumors of Malik’s arrest swarmed online after videos of Delhi Police arriving at the estranged BJP leader’s house and him at the police station, surfaced on social media platform.

However, the Delhi Police firmly denied the rumors saying that Malik, along with his supporters, turned up at the police station of his own volition and is free to leave at his own will.

The development comes a day after Satyapal Malik was summoned by the CBI as a witness in an alleged graft case involving Reliance insurance.

As per reports, earlier today police arrived at Malik’s Delhi residence and picked up farmers’ leaders and village chiefs who had come for a meeting with the ex-Jammu and Kashmir governor.

However, the leaders were detained by the police as holding meetings in residential areas without a permission wasn’t allowed as per the law.

Videos of the leaders on a bus while under detention and raising slogans in Malik’s support, are doing the rounds on social media.

Talking to reporters outside the police station before heading home, Satyapal Malik said the police has said they won’t arrest the leaders now.

Malik has been summoned by the CBI in connection with an alleged graft case involving Reliance General Insurance which reportedly took place during his stint as governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Satyapal Malik said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned him to the its Akbar Road guesthouse in New Delhi to provide “certain clarifications” on April 28.

Malik said he told the CBI that he was available from April 27 to 29 as he is travelling to Rajasthan. The probe agency has asked him to come in for questioning on April 28.