Mumbai Police have arrested Bollywood filmmaker Shakeel Noorani after a 33-year-old aspiring actor accused him of raping and threatening her, officials said on Monday.
The 73-year-old accused was traced to his farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar hill station, located more than 200 km from Mumbai, on Saturday after he went into hiding following the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against him, they said.
Noorani is known for directing films like Joru Ka Ghulam (2000), starring Govinda, and Bade Dilwala (1999), which featured Suniel Shetty.
In her complaint, the woman alleged that Noorani sexually assaulted her over the last four years and also poisoned her, leading to a miscarriage.
She claimed the accused had called her to his residence in the Malvani area here on the pretext of discussing the script of an upcoming film project, where he allegedly spiked her drink and sexually assaulted her.
When she regained consciousness, Noorani showed her an intimate video on his mobile phone and allegedly threatened to circulate it if she approached the police or informed her family.
The accused subsequently used the purported video to allegedly threaten her and sexually assault her on multiple occasions. He also gave her contraceptive pills following the assault and poisoned her, causing a miscarriage, a police official said quoting the woman’s complaint lodged 40 days ago.
After the case was registered, the accused went into hiding. The police even searched his son’s house at Lokhandwala in Mumbai’s Andheri area, but could not trace him.
He was finally apprehended from his farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar based on technical inputs, brought to Mumbai on Saturday and placed under arrest, the official said.
The accused has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 64(2)(m) (rape), 123 (causing hurt by means of poison), 88 (causing miscarriage) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation), he said.
Following the arrest, the accused was produced before a local court, which remanded him to police custody till August 12, the official added.
