Pune: Pune police have booked a city Congress leader, Rohit D. Tilak, on charges of rape following a complaint by a woman, police said here on Tuesday.
“Yes, he has been booked under Indian Penal Code section 376 (rape) and other charges at 11.15 p.m. on Monday night. Further investigations are on in the matter,” an official of Vishrambaug Police Station told IANS.
The accused is the great-grandson of the leader of the Indian freedom struggle, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, grandson of former Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Jayantrao Tilak, and son of Dipak Tilak, the Vice-Chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth.
Incidentally, his aunt Mukta Tilak is the current Bharatiya Janata Party Mayor of Pune.
According to the police, the complainant has been separated from her husband since over a decade and came in touch with the accused two years ago.
She has alleged that he lured her with the promise of marriage and repeatedly raped her, assaulted and threatened her, following which she approached the police.
Twice in the past, the Maharashtra Congress had given him a ticket to contest the assembly elections from Kasba constituency, but he proved unsuccessful against the BJP candidate.
Besides rape, the 40-year-old Tilak – who is not yet arrested – has been charged on various counts of assault, criminal intimidation and threats to the complainant-victim.
