CRPF jawan arrested over rape, blackmailing charges

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir police has arrested a jawan of Central Reserve Police Force following a complaint of rape by a woman from the state’s north-western town of Sopore. The woman also alleged that the CRPF jawan was now blackmailing her by saying that he would circulate the video on the incident.

The woman, a housewife, has in her complaint to the police said that the accused was blackmailing her for the past nearly two years after he had barged into her house in the town’s Chinkipora locality and “abused” her. She had earlier narrated her ordeal in a video clip, which went viral on social media last week.

The police has identified the CRPF jawan as Iqbal Ahmad, a resident of Garkote village of Uri in Baramulla district. Sources said that the accused was at home when arrested by the police.

Confirming this, a local police officer, Mashkoor Ahmed Zargar, said, “The police registered an FIR under Sections 452, 376 and 506 of the Ranbir Penal Code after a formal complaint was lodged with us.” He added that the accused was being questioned.

The woman has also alleged that the accused would take her out and then drive her to different places where some other persons would also join them in these “forced” outings. She recently told her  husband about the ordeal and he took her to the police station to lodge a formal complaint.

The police said that the preliminary investigations have revealed that the couple with their two children live in a house located adjacent to a camp of the CRPF’s 179 Battalion. The woman’s husband has told the police that, as per the statement made before him by his wife, the CRPF jawan had committed rape on her two years ago and since he would blackmail her by saying that he had got a video of the incident and would circulate it if she refused to have sex with him and go with him out.

The man has reportedly given the police as many as eighteen cellphone numbers from he received threatening calls during the past some day.