Mumbai News: Man arrested for repeatedly raping 21-year-old ‘Instagram girlfriend’

A 24-year-old man was arrested by police in Sakinaka for repeatedly raping his Instagram girlfriend and holding her captive for over a week.

The accused was identified as Asad Shaikh, a tempo driver. He had forcibly picked up the 21-year-old victim on June 27. She was rescued on July 5 after the Ghatkopar police received a tip-off.

In her complaint, the woman stated that the two met on Instagram four months ago and soon began meeting in person.

This is how he was arrested:

On April 13, at around 8 pm, Shaikh called the girl on the pretext of taking a drive. He drove her in his pace to Jari Mari area and tried to rape the victim by stuffing a handkerchief in her mouth. She somehow screamed for help and a passerby came to her aid.

Despite the incident, Shaikh boldly continued to call her, but she did not respond.

Later, on June 11, the victim was at Kurla’s Phoenix mall around 10 pm. The accused came to know about her whereabouts and went there, snatched her phone and approached Jari Mari. Shaikh allegedly lured her into his car and raped her inside. When the woman resisted, he hit her head against the car door, causing her head to bleed.

He also blackmailed her by saying that he would commit suicide if she did not continue the relationship with him. Using the same threat, he raped the victim several times.

On June 27, he took her to Vasai and drove around with her in his car for several days. In the meantime, the woman’s family filed a missing person complaint at the police station.

On July 5, Shaikh and the woman came to deliver goods near Kurla bus depot. Acting on the tip-off, Ghatkopar police filed a non-FIR, arrested the accused and handed him over to their Sakinaka counterparts.