Highlights
- Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja has been convicted for raping his domestic help by a Mumbai court. Shiney was accused of raping his domestic help in June 2009. The Bollywood actor had earlier been granted bail by Justice A P Deshpande of Mumbai High Court on October 1, 2009 on a surety of Rs 50,000 with a condition that he would stay in Delhi and report to the nearest police station regularly. The court had ruled that Shiney would be permitted to come to Mumbai only during the trial.
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Shiney Ahuja: Story So FarBollywood actor Shiney Ahuja has been convicted for raping his domestic help by a Mumbai court. The Sewri court in Mumbai has sentenced the actor to a minimum of seven years in prison.
Shiney broke down in court after the verdict was being read out, he was taken to jail directly from court.
His wife Anupam Ahuja, sat down next to him on the floor consoling him. "My husband is innocent," she said.
While convicting the accused, Judge P M Chouhan relied mainly upon the FIR in the case, Shiney's lawyer Srikant Shivade told reporters who were not allowed in the court as the trial was held in-camera.
The court has also not accepted the maid's evidence in the court that she was not raped as the judge felt that she had given false evidence.
Clad in pink shirt and jeans, 38-year-old Shiney was accompanied by his wife Anupam in the court when the judgement was delivered.
According to a policeman, there were tears in his eyes when the judge pronounced the order.
In September last year, the maid had backtracked from her allegations that Shiney had raped her at his residence in Mumbai and said the incident had never occurred.
The 20-year-old girl told the court that she had filed the complaint against the actor at the behest of the woman who had secured her the job of a maid in Shiney's residence.
Earlier, in June 2009, the girl had lodged a police complaint alleging that she was raped by the actor at his residence. Shiney was arrested on June 14 and released on bail three months later.
Meanwhile, Additional Commissioner of Police, Amitabh Gupta, who supervised the probe into the rape case, said the convincing evidence police collected had proved the role of the actor in the crime despite the victim turning hostile.
"We are happy that the accused in the case was convicted," he said.
They had convincing evidence including forensic evidence, the IPS officer said, adding, "We had left no loopholes in the probe. Despite the victim turning hostile we managed to prove our case in the court."
Police had gathered the DNA report and the medical report, which confirmed the rape by Shiney. The investigating officials also recorded the statements of 12 witnesses and gathered other documentary evidence, said another police officer.
The victim in her complaint to police had said that she and the actor were alone in the house when Shiney raped her. The maid had alleged that Shiney had confined her to his bedroom for hours before allowing her to go.
Once she was allowed to go, she told her aunt about the incident who then took her to the Oshiwara police station to lodge the complaint, the girl had said.
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With PTI inputs)