Mumbai: As police do nothing, rape complainant gets death threats on Instagram

The woman has had to block several fake accounts apparently created to bother her; a direct message showing a gun sent to the woman on her Instagram

A Mumbai model, who registered a rape and molestation case against nine high profile men from Bollywood at Bandra police station in May, claims she has been getting threat messages on Instagram. The woman has said the accused should be held responsible if ‘anything unnatural' happens to her before the case is concluded. It had taken the woman three weeks to get an FIR registered against Bollywood photographer Colston Julian, founder of Kwan Entertainment Anirban Blah, actor Jackky Bhagnani and Krishan Kumar of T-series.

The woman told mid-day that she is being gang-stalked by fake Instagram accounts, allegedly created by the accused. "I have blocked hundreds of fake accounts and have reported some as they had rather explicit pics and wordings as well as triggering usernames like @bitchurdead887, @terimaak231__ or something like @bulletzngunzz," she said in an Instagram post.

A direct message showing a grave was sent to the Mumbai model on her Instagram account

The woman added, "I told the investigating officer regarding the death threats being sent after I registered the FIR against these high-profile men. He suggested I visit the nearest police station to register a fresh case. But I am not willing to visit the police station again as it took me weeks to register the first FIR and none of the accused has been arrested till now."

"I have no other enemies in the world other than these accused," she said.

"One of the accused, Anirban Blah, approached the sessions court seeking anticipatory bail but it was rejected on July 5. The police have not arrested him yet. I don't know in what direction the investigation is going," she added.

The other accused in the case include Nikhil Kamat, Sheel Gupta, Ajit Thakur, Gurjot Singh and Vishnu Induri. The FIR was registered on May 26.

"I had to delete my Facebook account and remained off Instagram for two years but they never gave up gangstalking me," the woman told told mid-day.

Also read: Mumbai: 21-year-old rape accused who escaped from police van in Kandivli arrested

Opposed Blah's bail

The investigating officer, Assistant Police Inspector Sagar Nikam of Bandra police, said, "Anirban Blah's bail was rejected only because the police objected to the application of the accused. We have been following all the legal procedures before nailing the accused."

The woman has had to block several fake accounts apparently created to bother her; a direct message showing a gun sent to the woman on her Instagram

"Also, Blah is not in Mumbai. He is somewhere in Hyderabad. We have sent him a notice through email. So far, we have recorded the statements of five accused in the case," Nikam said.

The investigating teams have also visited all the crime spots mentioned in the woman's statement, said Nikam, adding, "We have recovered CCTV footage from a few locations. So far, statements of around 20 people have been recorded."

Nikam added, "We have been requesting the survivor to cooperate with us in the investigation."

Regarding the death threats, Nikam said, "I have told her to approach the nearest police station to register a fresh FIR."

Another senior officer from Bandra police told mid-day that police officers are not being dispatched to another state to arrest the accused over Covid-19 fears. "If the offence is fresh and heinous, we send our officers immediately to arrest accused hiding in other states. But this case is different as the offence took place a long time ago. So, our officers have been collecting all the electronic evidence and recording statements of people connected with it," the senior officer said.

05
No. of accused whose statements have been recorded