Mumbai : A 17-year-old girl from Dadar lodged a case of black-mail and rape against a 20-year-old boyfriend and two of his friends on May 22. All three accused have been arrested by the Dadar police and are currently in their custody. Nishikant Patil, Senior Police Inspec-tor, said the victim had been in a consensual sexual relationship with Kunal Wadela (20) since September 2014. The couple would visit a guest house in Nalaso-para often. Wadela’s friend, Kunal Rumda (19), allege-dly clicked photographs of her and Wadela on his phone in October and then demanded sexual favo-urs from her, threatening that he would release the photographs if she did not yield to his demands.
Patil said that the girl agreed and got involved in a sexual relationship with Rumda as well in May 2015. Consequently, the third accused, Alphonso Sabastian (19) allegedly clicked photographs of her and Rumda on his phone and also began to demand sexual fav-ours from her. The girl then approached and narra-ted her plight to her mother who took her to Dadar police station and lodged an FIR against Wadela, Rumda and Alphonso. The police nabbed all the thr-ee accused and confiscated their phones which have been sent to a laboratory to verify whether photos of the victim in a compromising position actually exis-ted, or were blank threats. Patil said, “The accused have been charged with rape of a minor and black-mail. They have also been booked under the POCSO, which calls for a more stringent punitive action against sexual offenders of minors.”
