Mumbai: 40-year-old fashion designer allegedly raped, abused by paramour after promising marriage; case registered

Accused Surjeet Mahendra Dadiala

A 40-year-old fashion designer in Mumbai on Tuesday accused her businessman-neighbour of rape under the guise of getting married to her. The woman said that her neighbour who was married to another woman, profited from her because she and her husband had a rocky marriage. She alleged that he flew her to Bangkok and booked five-star hotels to have sex with her while she was under the impression of getting married to him.

In a complaint, the woman has said that the man abused her after she divorced her husband according to Islamic laws. The man then refused to marry her.

The woman has filed a complaint against the accused in Oshiwara Police Station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The accused has been identified as Surjeet Mahendra Dadiala.

In the First Information Report filed at the Oshiwara Police Station, the woman said that she got married in 2012 and was living in a high-rise building in Andheri. In 2018, she met the man, her neighbor, and they became friends. Since then, he had been visiting her house. "During school vacations in 2018, his (the accused's) wife went to her native place along with her kids, and he called me to her place and offered me juice. After having the juice I felt unconscious, and he took advantage of the situation and had sex with me despite my refusal. Later in the morning, I realised that he had spiked my drink, and when I questioned him, he promised of getting married to me," the victim's statement reads.

The woman said that as she was having a disturbed marriage with her husband, she fell in love with the accused. They both started getting intimate at each other's houses during the absence of their partners. Sometimes they also visited a five-star hotel near the airport. "In August 2018 he took me to Bangkok where he spiked my drink and had physical relations with me, and every time I asked him about the marriage, he told me to take a divorce from my husband first."

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The victim separated from her husband in October 2018 and went to live at another place. "He came to my new place and had aggressive sex with me on multiple occasions, and in August 2020, when I asked him about marriage, he started abusing and beating me," the woman alleged.

She alleged that after beating her, the accused had anal and oral sex with her, and used sex toys to have unnatural sex, and that he refused to marry her. "This year, in February, my husband got to know about my relations, and he took Khulanama (divorce as per Islamic laws), and I sent the same to the accused to get married again, but he refused," she added in her statement.

The accused, who is in the construction and finance businesses, has been absconding since the FIR was registered. "My client was forced to have unnatural sex with the accused. She would get tortured and beaten. The accused had assured her about getting married to her and that he would be taking a divorce from his wife or he would convert to Islam to marry my client as she is a Muslim," said Advocate Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh, representing the victim.