A city-based lawyer has been absconding ever since he allegedly raped a client, to whom he had proposed, at her Madh Island house. The woman has filed a complaint with the Malwani police. Cops said that the complainant, a Bollywood junior artiste who had worked in films such as Singham, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and Padmavat and TV serials, met B J Shaikh at Borivli court in January 2023. She has been fighting a property dispute case registered at the Goregaon police station in 2012.

During the pandemic, she lost her source of income and was looking for a lawyer who would charge her a low fee, when Shaikh approached her. But, she didn’t hire him. According to the woman, after meeting her often, Shaikh sought her hand in marriage and she agreed. The lawyer told her that he would visit her home with his parents on March 5 to make it official. “I made all the arrangements, but he came alone,” she told mid-day. Shaikh told her that his mother had fallen ill and was hospitalised.