Mumbai: A local court today sent actor Inder Kumar Saraf to police custody till April 30 on the charge of rape of his ‘girlfriend’ after prosecution said it was a serious offence and they require time for probe.
The 40-year-old actor, who was arrested yesterday by Versova police, was produced before a Bandra Magistrate, who remanded him in police custody for four days.
The victim lodged a police complaint alleging that the actor had sexually assaulted her since Wednesday night at his suburban Andheri apartment before she escaped from his flat on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
She said the actor had molested her on the pretext of getting her roles in films.
The victim also claimed that she had been thrashed and hit with a beer bottle by Inder Kumar Saraf. She had burn wounds on her body indicating that the actor burnt her with his cigarettes, police said.
Saraf told police during interrogation that he was innocent and was being framed. He has taken the defence that he had consensual sex with his girlfriend, who was a model.
The prosecution said they needed time to probe the allegations levelled by the model that she was raped and assaulted by the actor. Hence, they sought custody of Inder Kumar Saraf for ten days or more. However, the court allowed four days remand.
Outside the court, Saraf’s wife told reporters that her husband was innocent and had been trapped by the victim. The model had threatened to commit suicide and slash her wrists if he did not involve himself in a relationship with her, she alleged.
The actor’s lawyer Amrendra Padgaonkar said there was a fight between the model and the actor on April 24 following which Saraf, his wife and the victim had gone to the police station. However, police sent them back saying they were busy as it was an election day. If she was raped, why did she not mention this on that day to police, he asked.
The actor has worked in several Bollywood movies, including ‘Wanted’, ‘Maa Tujhhe Salaam’, ‘Baaghi’, ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’ and ‘Masoom’.
On the basis of the complaint filed by the victim, the actor was booked under IPC sections 376 (punishment for rape), 324 (causing grievous hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (2)(criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said.
They said the actor had a troubled relationship with his wife in the past and that both were staying separately in the same building in suburban Versova.
Earlier, his wife had complained to police that Saraf had been harassing her over some domestic issues.
However, Inder Kumar Saraf’s wife told mediapersons today that the model had made baseless allegations against her husband.
