Cop booked in rape case gets interim protection from arrest

Mumbai: The sessions court has granted interim protection from arrest to an assistant police inspector (API) attached with the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with an alleged offence of rape and stalking registered against him and has directed the officer to cooperate with the investigation and attend court regularly.

On October 13, the Azad Maidan police booked API Vishwas Patil for allegedly sexually assaulting a 40-year-old woman, blackmailing her with photos and raping her several times.

Patil was booked under sections 376(2)(n) (repeated rape on the same woman), 377 (unnatural offences), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (insulting modesty of a woman), 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66E (punishment for violation of privacy) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The case was later transferred to Shivaji Park police station as the incident happened in their jurisdiction.

Patil had moved the sessions court after a case was registered and P P Bankar, additional sessions judge, granted him ad-interim anticipatory bail and released him on PR bond of ₹50,000 with one or more sureties.

The court also said the applicant should not contact anybody related to the case, nor leave the country and should cooperate with the investigation officer and visit the police station every Sunday from 11am to 2pm.

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on November 6.

According to the complainant in 2019, when Patil was working with the Anti Extortion Cell (AEC), he met the woman while working on the gangster Ravi Pujari case. He increased his friendship with her. He even promised to give her more business from the police department and started talking about his problems with her. She told him she was not interested. That was when he told her he liked her. She complained about the same to the AEC of the Mumbai crime branch. However, she was told not to complain to senior police officials.

In October 2020, Patil called her regarding one assignment and asked her to meet him in the Shivaji Park area. They met at the Prakash Hotel in Dadar. However, as the crowd was increasing in the restaurant, he asked her to come to a nearby flat where they could speak properly. He then gave her a cold drink. After drinking, she felt drowsy and tried to leave the place, but the officer then allegedly sexually assaulted her. Patil subsequently used her photographs taken by him to allegedly rape her multiple times by threatening to make her photographs viral.