22 April,2014 08:24 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
Last year, a woman had alleged that the same man SPI Ravindra Jaisingh Medhsingh had raped her at gunpoint in 2002, after which he threatened to eliminate her family
Rape crime
"For eight long years, I had to bear the pain of repeated rape, and had to undergo eight surgical abortions and consume abortion pills another 15 times." The heart-wrenching story that a 31-year-old woman shared with Mumbai's police commissioner last week brought with it a disturbing sense of deja vu.
mid-day report on Dec 27, 2013
Her tormentor's name made it all clear - Ravindra Jaisingh Medhsingh, the same policeman who allegedly raped a Dahisar resident at Sanjay Gandhi National Park in 2002, threatening her at gunpoint.
"I was afraid for my family and kept mum, while my tormentor asked me to meet him every day and suffer. He threatened to eliminate my family if I didn't follow his orders," said the complainant.
Senior Police Inspector Medhsingh was in the news for a similar crime last year, when the 42 year-old Dahisar resident approached the Mumbai Police and filed a complaint against him for raping her at gunpoint back in 2002.
He then told the woman that if she didn't continue sleeping with him, he'd harm her son and husband (âPoliceman raped me at gunpoint, cops are not taking any action,' December 27.) After receiving a complaint, former police commissioner Satyapal Singh had ordered a departmental inquiry on the cop.
In the recent complaint, the 31-year-old woman from Diva approached Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, and narrated to him how Medhsingh has repeatedly raped her from 2005. She also informed Maria that she had undergone surgical abortion about eight times, and resorted to consuming abortion pills after conceiving, on 15 other occasions.
The complainant added that she was a police informer back in 2005, when she met Medhsingh, who was then attached to the Narcotics Department. The two fell in love, and Medhsingh promised to marry her. "After spending almost two years with Medhsingh, I realised that he would not marry me. His promises were nothing but a carefully laid trap.
I left him and settled at my home in Diva, but Medhsingh kept visiting me there and forced himself on me on every visit. One day, when I tried to resist, he fired shots from his gun into the air, hearing which society members filed a complaint against him. But he lied, saying that he had misfired it."
"In 2011, Medhsingh finally agreed to marry me and we signed documents in the presence of a registrar. But when I asked him to take me to his home, he refused. Later, I learnt that he was already married. When I confronted him on this matter, he assaulted me violently and raped me. That is when I left him, but he kept visiting my house and raping me."
The woman claims that she went to different police stations, but no one was ready to register her complaint. In 2012, Medhsingh started pressing her for divorce. Even after the divorce, he raped her. Last week, the woman finally got an audience with Rakesh Maria, with whom she shared her harrowing story.
On Monday, she was summoned by the women's wing of the Mumbai Crime Branch, who recorded her statement. Sources in the cell said that Maria has set up a team to investigate the matter. Medhsingh could not be reached for comment.
