The bail application of the 40-year-old sitar player, who was arrested for allegedly sexually exploiting a 27-year-old woman, was rejected by the session court at Dindoshi on Tuesday.
The Free Press Journal was the first to report about a first information report (FIR) registered at Vile Parle police station on November 30, against the accused Mandar Namjoshi. A 27-year-old woman, currently pursuing her master’s degree in Economics at a suburban college registered the complaint, alleging that she was sexually exploited by Namjoshi multiple times.
The woman met Namjoshi when she was aged 17 at a Dadar-based education institute, later which he kept pursuing her through various mediums. The first time the crime took place was in 2022 when he took her to an Andheri-based hotel where he behaved violently by biting her and tried to sexually assault her, she said in her statement to the police. Later in March 2023, after convincing her to meet once again, he assaulted her.
On the day the FIR was registered, police arrested Namjoshi, and later the case was transferred from Vile Parle police to Andheri police.
The FPJ has a copy of the bail application submitted by Namjoshi, which states that the relationship between the accused and the victim is a failed love affair. The grounds of the bail also mention that the accused and the victim were in a consensual relationship. However, none of this was substantiated by the accused and his lawyer, following which the court rejected the bail plea.
In the FIR, Namjoshi, a resident of Vasai, has been slapped with charges including 354 (assault or criminal force on woman), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking), 377 (unnatural offences), 376 (rape) among others of the Indian Penal Code.
