Choreographer rapes woman, forces her to have abortion

The city police have arrested a 24-year-old choreographer and junior film artiste for sexually assaulting, blackmailing and threatening a woman after offering to teach her dance and singing.

The suspect, Karan Mahadev alias Manjunath, sexually assaulted the woman repeatedly and forced her into having an abortion, the police said.

Though he initially offered to marry her, he held off the plans after damaging her reputation, they added.

Following the woman's complaint with the Jnanabharathi police on Friday, the police filed an FIR against Manjunath and charged him with rape and criminal intimidation, besides invoking Section 315 (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive or to cause it to die after birth) and other sections of the IT Act.

In her complaint, the woman said Manjunath befriended her on Facebook two years ago and forced her to have a physical relationship with him while teaching her dancing and singing. Claiming to have a good network in the Kannada film industry, he assured help in launching her in films.

When she became pregnant with his baby, he took her to a private hospital closer home and forced her to have an abortion, saying having a child at this stage would hamper her career.

But she realised he was only using her when Manjunath began distancing himself from the woman. In November, when she got engaged to another man, Manjunath met the groom’s family and broke the engagement by showing them medical documents of her abortion.

He threatened to upload their private videos and forced her into having sex. Unable to put up with the harassment, the woman filed the complaint, a senior police officer said.