Kannada comedy actor Madenuru Manu accused of rape; detained

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have detained Kannada actor Madenuru Manu after a 33-year-old female artiste filed a complaint alleging that he raped her multiple times, while impregnating her twice. The woman also claimed that Manu gave her pills for abortions.

The woman said that Manu had befriended her on a well-known reality show, where she was his co-artiste, aired by a Kannada channel in 2018. Incidentally, Manu had emerged as the winner in that show.

She claimed that he took her and a few other comedy artistes for a show in Shikaripura, Shivamogga district, on November 29, 2022. “Later in the night, after the show, he came to my room at a lodge in Shikaripura to make payment for the show and raped me,” the complainant told the police.

According to the FIR, Manu allegedly went to her house in south Bengaluru’s Banashankari on December 3, 2022, and tied mangalasutra to her. In the same house, Manu allegedly raped her multiple times and impregnated her twice.

“He gave me pills to terminate pregnancy, and it was second time he made me go through the abortion,” the survivor told the police.

She further claimed that Manu moved her to a rented house in Nagarabhavi, which falls under the Annapoorneshwari Nagar police station. He allegedly raped her multiple times in the Nagarabhavi house and recorded it. He also assaulted her and threatened her not to speak about it, according to the FIR. She also told the police that he borrowed lakhs of rupees from her to do a movie as a lead actor. 

Following the complaint, Annapoorneshwari Nagar police have filed an FIR under BNS sections 318(4) (cheating), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 69 (sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means, etc.), 89 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent), and 64(2)(m) (repeated rape).

An investigator in the case told DH that Manu was detained from Hassan on Thursday; arrest procedures were yet to be initiated as the initial interrogation was still going on.