Maharashtra BJP neta’s aide Prafulla Lodha named in ‘honeytrap op’, booked in third rape case; threatened survivor with job loss | Pune News
PUNE: A purported aide of a senior BJP leader, Prafulla Lodha (62), who has been accused by the opposition of being involved in an alleged honey-trapping operation used to topple the MVA govt in the state, has been booked by Pune’s Bavdhan police on charges of sexually assaulting a 36-year-old woman under the pretext of helping her husband secure a job and later threatening to take away her job when she refused to have sex with him.Lodha is in Mumbai police’s custody in connection with similar cases registered at MIDC and Sakinaka police stations. Pimpri Chinchwad police said that the alleged sexual assault occurred on May 27 in a hotel room in Pune. “The woman approached us with her complaint on July 17 and we immediately registered a case. We are in the process of securing Lodha’s custody from our Mumbai counterparts,” said senior inspector Anil Vibhute of Bavdhan police. Police have invoked sections 64 (1) (rape) and 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita in the case. The survivor is the sole breadwinner of her family and the accused threatened to take away her job using his influence. Vibhute said the woman was scared after the accused threatened her. The officer said she reached the police station more than a month after the incident, when she gained the courage to lodge a complaint. Sakinaka police had booked Lodha, from Jalgaon district, earlier this month for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl and her friend, also under the pretext of getting them jobs. He was also accused of holding them captive and torturing them at his house in Chakala. In another case registered against him at the MIDC police station in the same month, he allegedly raped a woman in Andheri using the same ruse. He was arrested by Mumbai police from Chakala on July 5. On Monday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut had alleged that Lodha had played a key role in an alleged honeytrap operation involving several MPs and MLAs of the state. Raut had said they were blackmailed using compromising videos and these were also used to topple the MVA govt. Last week, Congress leaders had claimed that 72 politicians, bureaucrats and former officials had allegedly fallen prey to the honeytrap in the state. CM Devendra Fadnavis had dismissed Congress’s allegations. “There is no honey and no trap,” he had said in the assembly.(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
