The Mumbai Police crime branch on Thursday arrested seven persons, including three policemen, for allegedly raping and extorting money and jewellery from a model last month. The arrests came two days after the model sent an SMS to Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, seeking his help. Police said Maria met the model at his office on Wednesday before directing the crime branch to register an FIR and begin a probe. [related-post] Police said the accused have been charged with rape, molestation, wrongful restraint and causing hurt under various sections of the IPC. “The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 10) will submit a report on the incident to us and we will then place the policemen under suspension,” said Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order. Narrating the sequence of events that led to the alleged rape on April 3, a senior police officer said the model and a male friend had met a coordinator from a modelling agency at a hotel in Sakinaka. “The coordinator had asked her to come to his room and pay Rs 3,200. But the model was not comfortable with the idea and decided to leave. The coordinator then called his friends for help,” said the officer. A few minutes later, six men came to the hotel in a police car - three were policemen posted at Sakinaka police station while the others were civilians, the officer added. The policemen — two assistant inspectors and one constable — then allegedly asked the model and her friend to accompany them to the police station, he said. In her complaint, the model claimed that at Sakinaka police station, two of the policemen extorted money from her and forced her to part with her diamond jewellery and bangles, while another sexually assaulted her, before letting the pair leave, the officer said.
