After woman answers 'wrong number', guard lures her into meeting, rapes her

The Crime Branch yesterday arrested a 25-year-old security guard for allegedly raping a 40-year-old woman after calling her up randomly, boasting about his contacts with the elite, and baiting her into a meeting with a job for her nephew. He also robbed her of valuables worth Rs 55,000.

The accused, Shaffique Ahmed Khan alias Sahil (25), hails from Jammu and Kashmir. He was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday from Pali Hill in Bandra, where he had gone to give an interview for a new job. According to the Gamdevi police, the woman from Antop Hill alleged that on November 19, she got a call from an unknown person and told him he had dialled a wrong number, but he started a conversation with her. The police said the survivor spoke to the suspect even though it was a ‘wrong number'.

"Khan told her that he worked with V2 Max security services and was a security supervisor at Nanik Building in Napean Sea Road. As he was stationed in a high-profile locality, he was in touch with various industrialists in and around the area, he told her, and had helped employ several people. The woman fell for his trap and told him she also wanted one of her nephews to land a job," said a police officer from Gamdevi police station.

Khan asked the woman to meet him and on November 19, she went to Juhu Beach to see him. They then went to a spot near Mahalaxmi Temple, where he gave her a cold drink spiked with drugs. As she started feeling drowsy, he took her to a nearby building and raped her. "She fell in his trap, and on the pretext of showing her the office of his friends, he took her to a building behind Mahalaxmi Temple, to a room where one of his friends stays, and allegedly raped her. He had spiked her drink so she was not fully conscious," said senior inspector Nandkumar Gopale of property cell.

After sexually assaulting her, he robbed her mobile phone, gold chain and cash, all amounting to Rs 55,100, and fled the spot. The Crime Branch's property cell started a parallel investigation in the case and managed to trace Khan and arrest him from Bandra, where he was appearing for a job interview. "We traced him through his mobile phone details. The accused has been identified as Shaffique Ahmed Khan alias Sahil (25) who hails from Jammu and Kashmir," said Nitin Patil, assistant police inspector of the property cell.u00a0