The accused, a 28-year-old Surat man, after being spurned by the object of his affection, allegedly spiked her food and raped her; he recorded the incident and used it to blackmail her
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This could well be the poster version of a romantic saga gone horribly off the rails, minus the consent of the woman. A 28-year-old Surat man, after being spurned by the object of his affection, decided to force her hand by allegedly raping her on several occasions and videographing it, only to use it again to rape her again. Later, after she got married to someone else, he even attempted to extort the couple and demanded Rs 50 lakh against his silence. The cherry on top: He insists he is married to her.
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‘Friends on Facebook’
In 2012, the 26-year-old complainant, a resident of Thakurdwar, south Mumbai, came in contact with the accused Vivek Hiralal Savani via Facebook. The two exchanged their details and started communicating on WhatsApp as well.
“In January 2013, the accused proposed to her, but she refused. He accepted the rejection at the time, and in November 2013, when he came to Mumbai asked her to meet him at the Residency Hotel in Fort. There, he threatened her that if she didn’t accept him, he would commit suicide and name her in the suicide note. She still turned him down,” said a police official.
As per the woman’s complaint filed at VP Road police station, in 2014, the accused called her to Surat to celebrate his birthday and took her to a lodge. Then he allegedly spiked her food to rape her, and also took pictures and videos of it to use against her later.
In the following months, he allegedly used the information to blackmail her and rape her again on several occasions. Even when her wedding to another man was finalised in 2014, he threatened to kill her father and to-be groom and refused to stop harassing her.
Told her family
Frustrated, the woman narrated her ordeal to her husband and in-laws who then tried to mediate with Savani and asked him to stop. Instead, he demanded R50 lakh and threatened to defame the family with the illicit video and photos.
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The family then approached Mumbai’s joint commissioner of police (crime), who directed them to VP Road police station. The police then registered a case under relevant sections of IPC and IT Act and arrested Savani.
Claims of marriage
A police officer said that following his arrest, Savani claimed that he had married the woman in a Surat court in March 2014, which the woman refutes, but accepted that he forcefully took her signatures on some paper in a government office.
The police is now looking into the claim though Savani has not produced any documentary evidence in support of it.
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