BHOPAL: A deputy commissioner of Uttar Pradesh Commercial Tax department identified as Pankaj Kumar Singh was arrested in Bhopal on Monday for allegedly raping another officer of UP government at a premier hotel in the Madhya Pradesh capital.
The incident happened in the room of a premier hotel in Kamla Nagar police station area of Bhopal where the woman officer of UP government had been staying last few days for attending the batch reunion function of a premier girls’ school in Bhopal, which is her alma mater.
The woman aged 41 alleged in the complaint that Singh, 45, who is presently posted as deputy commissioner commercial tax in Noida, tailed her and reached the premier hotel in Bhopal, where she was staying since August 2. On the same night, Singh allegedly raped her in the hotel room.
After attending the batch reunion function at her alma mater in Bhopal, when the woman officer was to fly to Delhi on August 5, Singh forced her not to fly back to Delhi, even though she had already attained the boarding pass at the Bhopal Airport to board the flight.
Singh brought the woman back to the premier hotel, where she had stayed between August 2 and August 5 and checked into another room there. She was sexually and physically assaulted by Singh on Sunday-Monday intervening night inside the hotel room, where she was held hostage by the high ranked commercial tax official from UP.
He also threatened to kidnap and rape the woman’s daughter, if the woman tried to raise an alarm. At around 3 am on Monday, the woman managed to get out of the room and with the help of hotel staff informed the Dial 100 emergency response service of MP police.
Acting in the matter, the Bhopal police recorded the UP government’s woman officer’s statement and then lodged a case under Sections 376 (rape), 294 (abusive conduct) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) against Singh. “The accused has been arrested and taken in police custody for interrogation. He will be produced before the court on Tuesday,” said ASP (Bhopal Zone 1) Dharamveer Singh.
Investigations have revealed that the woman and Singh were known to each other since 2010, while Singh was posted in Noida only as a deputy commissioner. In the same year, he took the woman to his house on the pretext of meeting his mother, but once at his house she found that his mother wasn’t there.
Taking advantage of mother’s absence, Singh raped the woman at his house and filmed her indecent videos. He allegedly used the same videos at many occasions later to blackmail her.