Tennis coach booked for raping woman, extorting ₹12 lakh from her

A woman filed a police complaint against her tennis coach in Mumbai for rape, assault, extortion, and harassment. Coach booked by Lonavala police.

MUMBAI: A 40-year-old woman has filed a police complaint against her tennis coach for repeatedly raping and assaulting her and also alleged that the accused extorted ₹12 lakh from her and that she had to undergo an abortion and was suicidal due to continuous harassment and threats. Based on the written complainant, the Lonavala city police booked the accused on Wednesday.

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The complainant told the police that she had joined a sports club in Hiranandani, Powai in July 2022 where she met the accused tennis coach. In October of that year, he asked her to come to Pune for a tennis tournament and raped her in a resort in Lonavala, she said.

“Even before the trip to Lonavala, there were instances of inappropriate behaviour on his part. He once video-called me wearing only boxers and propositioned me. He would also keep touching me on the tennis court which I first dismissed but he passed it off by saying that he was doing his job and helping me with my posture,” the complainant said.

The woman also spoke of an instance where the coach went to her house to see her sick daughter. As other family members were not around at the time, he tried to force himself on her, but she drove him out of the house, she said.

When they were on their way to Pune for the supposed tournament, they were alone in the car. “He told me the others had already left and would meet us ahead. Then we stopped at a lodge in Lonavala. He entered my room to use the bathroom as he said the one in his room was not clean,” said the complainant.

She said he repeatedly raped her over the next two days. He also threatened her not to tell anyone as he would turn it around as she pursued him. The accused allegedly also took her to other lodges and raped her several times afterwards, and even extorted money from her. “In May 2023, he even took me to a maternity home to abort pregnancy,” the complainant said. She also told the police that he threatened to twist facts and present it to her husband as an affair which made the woman to attempt suicide on multiple occasions. The man has been booked under sections 376 (rape), 376 (2) (n) (repeatedly raping the same woman), 354 (assault or use of criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman), 452 (wrongful restrain), 312 (causing miscarriage), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of public peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.