A Govandi-based 22-year-old man and his two relatives have been booked by police for allegedly assaulting, extorting, threatening, and keeping a woman hostage, who is the man’s girlfriend.
The victim in this case, who is also the complainant, a 32-year-old woman, resident of Shivaji Nagar in Govandi, approached the police on Sunday and narrated the entire matter to them. She has two children, 13 and 11 years of age, and they all live together, including her husband.
Victim's statement
According to her statement, she met Akshay Singh, the accused, four years ago, and since 2021, they have had an extramarital relationship. Singh, who was jobless, frequently borrowed money from the victim, and she claims to have paid Rs.10,000 almost every month to cover his expenses. This has been going on for the past four years.
Two years into their romantic relationship with each other, they have several pictures of them together. Starting in 2021, his demand for money started to increase, and when she hesitated or refused to pay, he started to threaten her by saying he would show and send pictures to her husband. Worried about it, she continued to pay him lakhs of money, even by borrowing money from others and selling her gold jewelry, worth Rs. 5 lakhs. The woman eventually broke off the relationship, but his demands never stopped, she said.
Accused's family joins extortion
On November 30, Singh and his aunt Sunita came to the victim’s house and asked her to come to their flat. When she entered the house, Akshay locked the door from inside and demanded she pay Rs. 20,000. When she said she was short of cash, he started hitting her. According to the victim, he used a bamboo stick and his leather belt to hit her on her arms, legs, and back. Sunita and another relative named Lakshmi started assaulting her too, she said. She was locked inside the apartment the whole day, and the next morning at around 4:30, when they were all asleep, she managed to escape and ran to her house, where she told her husband everything that happened in the past few years.
Later, they approached the police and registered an FIR against the three. By the time police reached the location, they had all fled from their apartment. A manhunt has been launched to trace and nab them, the police said.
Case registered against 3
The three accused, Singh, Sunita, and Lakshmi, have been slapped with charges of 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 34 (common intent), 342 (wrongful confinement), 384 (extortion), 385 (putting fear on a person of injury to commit extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 506 (2) (death threat), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code.
