Navi Mumbai crime branch constable accused of rape not arrested yet 40 days on

It’s been 40 days since a 23-year-old woman registered a rape case against police constable Rupesh Kohli (attached with Navi Mumbai crime branch) at Khandeshwar police station. However, the police are unable to arrest the accused till date.

In her statement, the survivor mentioned that she had met Kohli on social media a few months ago and they became friends. Kohli, 23, then established a physical relationship with her promising marriage and later when she conceived, he forcefully got her pregnancy terminated by giving her some medicines. After all these, he refused to marry her.

The police booked the accused under Sections 376, 313, 323, and 417 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the relevant sections of Atrocity Act as applicable in this case. Navi Mumbai police commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh suspended Kohli two days after the case was registered.

Bhagawat Sonawane, assistant commissioner of police (Panvel division), said, “As the accused is also a policeman, he knows the strategies we use to arrest the absconding accused. He went into hiding before the case was registered and has not taken any step that might give us clues about his whereabouts. Our teams are still searching for him at different places of the state.”

Hemant Sharma, a social activist and convener of Sahayak Janheet Abhiyan, a non-governmental organisation, alleged, “We have observed that in such cases the police normally delay in arresting the accused and, meanwhile, try to influence the complainant’s decision. If the complainant agrees to settle the case outside the court, the police don’t arrest the accused at all. We hope the police are not purposely delaying arrest in this case too.”