A week after an offence for sexually exploiting a 25-year-old woman was registered against him at the Kashimira police station, local BJP officer bearer Navin Singh was apprehended during the wee hours on Wednesday. Singh was caught sleeping in a car parked at a petrol pump in Charoti village near Palghar.
The BJP leader, who worked as a booth co-ordinator of the party had gone into hiding after an FIR was registered against him by the woman at the Kashimira police station on 14 September 2022. The FIR was registered under sections 376, 313, 504, and 506 of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act-2008.
“To evade arrest, the accused had switched off his mobile and was using some other number. However, we managed to arrest him from Charoti in Palghar,” informed senior police inspector Sanjay Hazare.
The accused was trying to move court and get bail, sources said. In her complaint to the police, the woman stated that she came into contact with the accused on a social networking platform in July 2021. They later started meeting, and the accused, under the promise of marriage and taking care of her daughter, established physical relations with the woman on several occasions. When the woman got pregnant, the accused coerced her to take abortion pills. He not only refused to marry her but continued to exploit her with threats of making her objectionable images viral on social media.
The accused went on to send her images to his office staff, following which the distressed woman registered a complaint with the Kashimira police. Meanwhile, the arrested BJP leader was remanded to three days of police custody after he was produced before the district sessions court, Thane, on Wednesday.
Further investigations were underway.
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