Mumbai: A 23-year-old woman registered a complaint against her husband at the Ulhasnagar police station for allegedly making a video of their intimate moments and then threatening to upload it on social networking sites and their families’ social media groups if she did not arrange for money from her parents.
The husband, Kaushal Rijwani, allegedly blackmailed her on several occasions and extorted cash from her ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2 lakh. According to the complainant, Rijwani has been sexually harassing her and forcing her to perform unnatural sexual acts ever since they got married a year ago.
The complaint was registered on Friday. After a primary investigation, the case was transferred to the Pune police as the incident took place in their jurisdiction, said police sources.
According to the police, the complainant married Rijwani (24) in April 2017 and relocated to Pune from Ulhasnagar. Just 15 days after the wedding, he shot a video of them while consummating their marriage and also clicked a few pictures, they said. When the woman objected, Rijwani promised to delete the multimedia content. However after a few days, he allegedly started beating her, and threatened to leak the pictures and videos on social networking websites.
A month later, Rijwani allegedly started forcing himself on her, again with the threat of disclosing the videos in public. In return for keeping the videos private, he started demanding money from her parents, they said. When he made the demand for Rs 2 lakh, the woman asked him why he needed so much money to which he allegedly replied by striking her. She also caught Rijwani allegedly getting intimate with his sister in the same house. When she tried to leave the house, he again threatened to leak the intimate photos and videos. Due to her parents’ poor financial condition, the complainant was unable to fulfil the Rijwani’s demands.
Finally, a fortnight ago, the complainant fled from her in-laws’ house in Pune and returned to her parents’ home in Ulhasnagar. After discussing the matter with her family, she approached the Ulhasnagar police to register a complaint.
Police inspector H. Kale, investigating officer of the case said, “We have transferred the case to Pune police.” Inspector Kale further added, “The woman said that some times her father-in-law used to touch her inappropriately. The details will be shared with the police and when it probes the matter further.”
The accused has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 377, 354(A), 406 and 506, which pertain to offences related to unnatural sex, sexual harassment, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation respectively.
