Police book IPS officer accused of raping FB friend

The Delhi Police has filed the final charge sheet against an IPS officer of West Bengal cadre, over a year after a woman who he befriended on Facebook accused him of raping her, sources said on Sunday.

The Delhi-based woman had in 2018 accused the officer of raping her on the promise of marriage.

The charge sheet was filed earlier this month, the sources said.

According to the charge sheet, the woman and the IPS officer became friends on Facebook and within a few months of chatting and video calls, the IPS officer met her in Delhi on January 27.

The woman alleged that he kept promising that he would marry her.

On their first meeting, the two went to a mall in Vasant Kunj for dinner.

The next day, they met again and he offered her some chocolates induced with liquor. The woman felt dizzy after consuming them after which he brought her to a hotel and started making advances. Though she tried to resist, he continued, the woman had said in her statement, which is also mentioned in the charge sheet.

After allegedly raping her, the officer apologised to her and reassured the woman of marrying her, the charge sheet said.

After returning to West Bengal, he continued to be in contact with the woman for sometime but started ignoring her later when she kept reminding him of the promise. He also blocked her on all social media platforms and refused to marry her, according to the charge sheet.

The woman approached police with her complaint in May last year and a case was registered at the Barakhamba Police Station.

However, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch.

Initially, the officer had denied about his presence in Delhi but later he admitted that he came to the city and met the woman. He, however, claimed the woman was not with him on the day of the alleged incident and that he returned to the hotel alone, said an official privy to the probe.

Earlier, the IPS officer was named in column 12 of the charge sheet owing to lack of evidence but in the final charge sheet, he has been named in column 11 as an accused after the phone call records and other pieces of evidence proved that he and the woman were together in the hotel at the time of the incident as claimed by her, the official added.

The woman had alleged police inaction in the case and filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court that the investigation was not being carried properly and the accused was misusing his position as an IPS officer and got false cases registered against her, her mother and also tried to get false case registered against her brother in Sonipat.

When contacted, the woman said she did not wish to comment as the matter was sub-judice.