Mumbai, Jul 28 (Mid-day) : The 26-year-old model who had accused Deputy Inspector General (Protection of Civil Rights Unit) Sunil Paraskar of rape has been given police security after she complained that she has been receiving threatening calls to get her to withdraw the case.
The police say they are waiting for call detail records (CDRs) from service providers and will be summoning members of Paraskar’s personal police staff, who accompany him wherever he goes, for questioning. The model had alleged that Paraskar had raped her in the month of December 2013.
She said she had first met Paraskar when she had gone to register a complaint against her brother, who had locked her mother in their Goregaon flat, during a property dispute. She said she had been molested by her neighbour later and had filed a case and Paraskar had messaged her to come over and meet him, but she had not gone.
She then learnt that some websites were putting up her photos and cellphone number for escort services and she met Paraskar, who was then the additional commissioner of police (north region), again in this connection.
Apologies galore
Later, Paraskar started sending her ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’ messages on a daily basis. She had told him that she wanted to buy property and he asked her to come to Navi Mumbai to see a flat.
He showed her the house, claiming it was his and that he could rent it out to her if she was interested. He allegedly misbehaved with her in the flat and she asked him to stop. Paraskar then took her back to Goregaon and kept apologising the whole way. He also sent her messages of apology.
“Some time later, Paraskar asked the model to meet him again as he wanted to show her a resort in Madh Island, Malad, where he claimed he could arrange for her to do a photo shoot for free. In the bungalow, he allegedly raped her after consuming alcohol,” said a police officer from the crime branch.
Paraskar kept in touch with the survivor even after the rape. He told her that he had done a lot for her and he went on to arrest all the accused in the escort services case she had filed. After the arrests, he asked her to gift him something and the model allegedly gave him a Rs 70,000 watch.
“He then called her to meet him again at a hotel near the airport, but this time she took her business manager along,” said the police officer. The model said she had wanted to register a complaint against Paraskar for a long time but was afraid of his connections. When he got transferred as a DIG, however, she got support from an IPS officer and registered the complaint.
Commissioner speaks:
“We have given her police bandobast after she complained of threat calls,” said Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, The police are investigating the source of the calls and suspect that they are the handiwork of somebody close to Paraskar.
“We have asked for details of his orderlies and wireless men and will record their statements,” said Maria. “We have asked for CDRs of both Paraskar and the woman and our case will become strong if they match,” said an officer of the women’s cell of the crime branch, which is the unit that is investigating the case.
Incriminating text messages
The police will be getting the medical report of the survivor by tomorrow and are likely to seize Paraskar’s computer and phone as the survivor has given strong evidence of mails and messages that she had shared with Paraskar.
The DIG had also allegedly taken the model’s old phone, as he suspected she had taken pictures of him getting intimate with her, and gifted her a new phone. Police are now trying to trace the old phone.