Chhota Rajan’s kin booked for sexual assault

Mumbai: The Tilak Nagar police has registered a case of alleged sexual assault against incarcerated gangster Chhota Rajan's brother Deepak Nikalje on Sunday, acting on a complaint by a 22-year-old female student. 

The case was registered after the woman approached the police, complaining of being targeted on several occasions in Navi Mumbai where she resides. The case has been transferred to Panvel police for further investigation. The victim is a student studying in Kharghar. The police’s preliminary probe revealed that the girl got allegedly acquainted with  Nikalje in 2014, when she was barely 18, after a common contact sent her to Nikalje to seek help for her education. Nikalje allegedly helped her by raising some funds and helping out in her admission. 

The girl approached police on Sunday with the complaint, which was heard, and a case was registered soon after. After helping the girl with funds, he allegedly started exploiting her by taking her to his Panvel farmhouse, the police alleged. On some occasions he also took her to lodges at Lonavala and places in Navi Mumbai.

In 2014, he first allegedly molested her and later sexually assaulted her, according to the police. The incidents took place on several occasions at his Panvel farmhouse, where he would take her and force himself on the victim, police said. 

"The girl was staying in Chembur Tilak Nagar belt but eventually shifted to Navi Mumbai. The sequence of untoward incidents have taken place at the accused person's Panvel farmhouse, and so the case has been transferred there," said a senior police officer.

The police will question the girl and begin probing the case after the Tilak Nagar police transfers the case papers to them. 

A case under section 376 (rape), 354 (molestation) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against Nikalje and it has been transferred to the Navi Mumbai police for further investigation.