BENGALURU: Jnana Bharathi police on Thursday arrested Kannada choregorapher, music director and actor Karan Mahadev alias Manjunath, who had been absconding after a woman filed a complaint accusing him of raping a woman repeatedly over the course of two years.
The woman had filed a complaint on November 27 against 24-year-old Karan, who was an actor in the movie Goolihatti, alleging that he raped her as well as threatened and forced her to abort her baby.
According to the complaint filed by the 22-year-old woman, she had befriended Karan on Facebook two years ago, and he had promised to teach her music and dance.
“We exchanged phone numbers and spoke for weeks. He told me that he is a choreographer and asked me to learn music and dance after which he said he would introduce me to many producers,” the complaint said.
The woman claimed that she developed a friendship with Karan over the phone, and a few weeks later, he asked her to meet him at his studio at Ullal Upanagar. Trusting him, she went to the studio every day to learn dance. After a few days, she said, Karan tried to misbehave with her.
When she refused to cooperate with him, she said, “He threatened me with the videos and audio clips that he had recorded and raped me for several days. He also impregnated me,” she said in her complaint.
The police said the girl was engaged to a boy and she had pleaded with Karan to stop contacting her. However, he refused to do so and said it was fine if she got married, but she had to continue the relationship.
He also showed some videos to her fiance in which they were in a compromising position, which led to her engagement being cancelled. She then informed her parents who later lodged a complaint with the police.