Maharashtra Man Rapes Woman Multiple Times On Pretext Of Marriage, Arrested

Police have arrested a 26-year-old man from Bhiwandi in Maharashtra's Thane district on the charge of raping a woman multiple times on the promise of marrying her, officials said on Tuesday.

The accused, Ashraf Afsar Chaudhary, was planning to flee to Dubai before being arrested, they said.

The arrest was made a couple of days back based on the complaint filed on July 2 by the 25-year-old woman from Kalyan, an official said on Tuesday.

The victim met Chaudhary on Instagram last year. After winning her confidence, the accused promised to marry her and repeatedly subjected her to sexual assault between July 2024 and June this year at different locations, he said.

The victim said in her complaint that after her first husband died of health complications, she married a man from Rajasthan. However, after Chaudhary befriended her, he forced her to divorce him. She did as he said. But despite his promise, the accused refused to marry her, the official of Kongaon police station said.

After she realised that she had been cheated, the victim approached a social worker and counsellor, who took her to the police station to lodge a complaint.

Based on her complaint, the police registered a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 64 (rape), 69 (sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means, the official said, that a probe was immediately launched.

"The police acted swiftly after receiving a tip-off that Chaudhary was planning to flee to Dubai. A trap was laid in the area where he resides, and he was apprehended," senior inspector Netaram Maske said.

A local court remanded him in judicial custody, he said.

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