A day after reports that the victim in the Kasliwal rape case has been finally traced,theres a new twist to the whole episode. On Friday,the Worli police denied having traced the 52-year-old woman who was allegedly raped by the scion of Sri Ram Mills,Abhishek Kasliwal,after offering her a lift from Colaba on March 11,2006. However,the prosecution in the trial court said that the case will be stronger now that the victim is back. In 2007,as the victim could not be found,the High Court had relaxed the bail conditions of Kasliwal to allow him to return to Mumbai. When contacted,additional public prosecutor Usha Kiran Makasare said,the case will be stronger now. The next hearing is on June 17 and if the need arises we will move an application to summon the victim to court. Kasliwals lawyer Shamsher Garud said,We have not confirmation if she is back. Senior Police Inspector Bharat Worlikar from the Worli police station said,The victim has not yet been traced by us after she disappeared in October 2006. We have been sending teams to different places in the country as and when we get information about her possible whereabouts. Our efforts are still on. As per Worlikar,teams were sent to places like Kolkata,Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. The court had on various occasions pulled up the police for failing to trace the victim,especially since the court had ordered the police to give her protection while it was granting bail to Kasliwal in 2007. Meanwhile,the prosecution said in the High Court (HC) that if this (victims reappearance) is true then the state can move an application to reverse the order regarding relaxation of Kasliwals bail,based on instructions from the police. The HC had in April this year,relaxed his bail conditions and allowed him to reside in Mumbai till the police traced the victim. A police official requesting anonymity said,The case has proved to be a headache for us. Unlike in other rape cases where the victims are often eager to help the prosecution,in this case,the complainant has vanished. The court has asked us to trace her. Even the victims sister,who does not stay in the state,claims to have no clue on the victims whereabouts. In such a situation,how are we supposed to trace her? Worlikar said,We recently received information about a location where she might be present. We have sent a team to bring her back. However,at this point of time,I do not want to name the location as it would hamper the operation. Kasliwal was arrested on March 12,2006 for the alleged rape and a chargesheet was filed in June. He got bail in April,2007 but was directed to stay in Delhi. His entry into Mumbai was restricted to avoid any manipulation of evidence. At the time of granting bail on a bond of Rs 50,000,the court had verbally observed that in such cases sex with consent was a possibility. In March 2008,the police was reprimanded by the City Civil and Sessions Court after the court was informed that the victim had gone missing and could not be served with the summons to record her statement in court. This happened in spite of a HC direction in April 2006 to provide protection to the victim until the trial is over.
