Accused custody in Brazilian rape extended

Mumbai: A magistrate court Thursday extended the police custody of the president of the Cuffe Parade Residents' Association, in connection with the rape of a Brazilian student. The lawyer of the accused said that he had been kept in illegal custody as he could not be produced before the court on May 29, when his custody got over but the police claimed that he had been produced before a local court in Kerala where he was taken for a probe.

The Kerala court refused to grant custody, saying it did not have jurisdiction so he was brought back to Mumbai and produced before the court Thursday.

The police has arrested Padmakar Nandekar (52) on charges of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old Brazilian girl.

Public prosecutor Rajendra Suryawanshi had argued before magistrate Krishna. G. Paldewar that after arrest when the police took Nandekar for a medical examination, the doctors suggested ‘psychological’ and ‘physiological’ tests on him to check his mental condition and in order to conduct these tests, the police needed his further custody.