Mumbai, March 13
The Bhoiwada Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court here today sentenced Abishek Kasliwal, a prominent textile mill owner, to police custody till March 17 for allegedly raping a woman early Sunday morning.
Kasliwal, 26, was arrested after the woman, 52, complained that she had hitched a ride in the Mercedes driven by him.The incident happened a little after midnight when she was returning home after visiting friends, the woman said in the police complaint.
The Kasliwals own Shriram Mills and the S Kumar brand of
textiles. In her complaint, the woman said she was dragged to the Shriram Mills premises where she was
raped. She was then allegedly brought back to the area from where she was picked up and dumped on the road.
Meanwhile Abhishek’s father Ambhuj Kasliwal has been quoted by the media as saying that the youth had been "framed"in the case.
According to a PTI report, the police will once again question the watchman of the Worli-based Shriram Mills in connection with the alleged rape.
The watchman, whose identity has been withheld, has reportedly admitted in his statement before the police that Abhishek brought the woman to Shriram Mills compound that night.
Significantly, the watchman also claimed that the Kasliwal scion was regular to Shriram Mills in the night and he often saw him accompanied by girls, police sources said, adding, that the police was likely to record the watchman's statement before a magistrate.
Abhishek was arrested by the Worli Police yesterday after a 52-year-old woman, an Anglo-Indian from Kolkata who moved to Mumbai for a living, lodged a complaint of rape and assault against him.
Although the woman named the alleged assailant as Vicky Malhotra, who picked her up from South Mumbai and took her to Shriram Mills at Worli where she was allegedly raped and hit, the police named Abhishek as the accused after the watchman of the mill admitted to have seen the woman accompany Abhishek on that night.
The woman alleged that she was waiting to catch a bus near the Prince of Wales Museum late Saturday night when Abhishek offered a lift.
