A 19-year-old college student was allegedly sexually exploited by a 27-year-old man after being approached for a modeling gig. On Tuesday evening, the Bhandup police arrested the primary accused, Rahul Chavan, from Bandra. Chavan, along with two other individuals, also extorted up to Rs. 45 lakhs from the victim.
The victim, a resident of Bhandup, is currently pursuing a computer engineering degree at a prestigious city-based college. According to her statement to the Bhandup police, she was approached via Instagram by an individual named Hardik, who claimed he could help her build a career in modeling. Hardik said he was associated with a well-known company that represents Dharma Productions, Netflix, and other OTT platforms. He promised that she could earn crores of rupees through modeling.
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Hardik instructed her to contact another man named Rahul Chavan, who asked her to pay Rs. 20,000 as a registration fee. Hardik then arranged a meeting at a Hookah Bar in Bandra, where he reiterated the need for Rs. 20,000 to create a portfolio. The victim convinced her parents to lend her the money and paid the fee. Rahul then promised her a 'shooting gig' with the international brand Louis Vuitton and demanded Rs. 1 lakh for it. When her parents refused to provide such a large sum, Rahul suggested she steal gold jewelry from her house, which she did. This marked the beginning of a series of demands from Rahul for money under various pretexts.
Starting in April, Rahul allegedly raped the victim on multiple occasions, according to her statement to the police. Months later, Hardik messaged the victim on Instagram, demanding she send nude pictures for modeling purposes. “He said my nude pictures would be used to get me gigs with my face cropped. Since I wanted to be a model, I did as asked,” the victim stated in the FIR. However, after she sent the pictures, Hardik began threatening her, demanding a physical relationship. Subsequently, another individual named Shreyas approached the victim via Instagram, introducing himself as Rahul’s partner, and sent her explicit messages demanding sexual favors.
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Later, the victim's father noticed the missing jewelry in their house locker and questioned her about it. After some time, she confessed everything to her father, except for the sexual exploitation. Her father then contacted Rahul to discuss the money he had taken from her under the pretext of modeling gigs. Instead of returning the jewelry and money, Rahul allegedly spoke ill of the victim to her father and demanded more money to prevent the pictures from going viral. The father ended up paying Rs. 45 lakhs to Rahul, according to the victim.
The victim, troubled by the entire situation, finally decided to confess everything to her parents, who then approached the Bhandup police and registered an FIR against the accused. They have been booked under sections 308(2) (extortion), 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 356(2) (defamation), 69 (sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means), and 77 (voyeurism) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as section 67(a) (publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit acts in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act. After the FIR, police arrested Chavan from his Bandra residence while the probe on the other two accused is currently underway.
