Police have booked a 25-year-old COVID-19 patient for allegedly raping a 40-year-old woman at a quarantine facility at Indiabulls at Kon village in Panvel.
The police said on July 15, the accused brought food for his brother, who is quarantined on the fifth floor of the facility, but he accidentally entered the woman’s room.
After a brief conversation with the woman, he left her room. The next day, the accused was also placed under quarantine on the second floor of the facility as he was a close contact.
The police said the accused entered the complainant’s room at 7.30 p.m. and told her he was a doctor. “He enquired about her health and she told him she had body aches. The accused said she needed a massage and made her undress. He then raped her,” assistant police inspector Nitin Pagar said.
The woman said in her complaint that the accused dragged her into the bathroom and covered her mouth with his hand to prevent her from raising an alarm. However, the accused has claimed that the act was consensual, the police said.
The woman complained to the authorities at the centre and an FIR was registered on Friday. Senior police inspector Ashok Rajput said, “Their swab samples were taken, but their reports are awaited. The accused was then made to undergo a rapid antigen test and he tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. We have not arrested him. He is still under quarantine at the centre with security cover.”
The Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) have been using the facility as a quarantine centre. The woman and the accused had been placed under quarantine by the PMC. The NMMC has clarified that it has not placed any women under quarantine at the facility.
The police said the accused worked at a mall and has been out of work since the start of the lockdown. The complainant is a homemaker who resides in Kharghar and her husband is an autorickshaw driver.
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