In a development that created a sensation in the State political circles, the Pune Police booked local Congress leader and renowned freedom fighter lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s great grandson Rohit Tilak on charges of rape and assault of a woman.
Acting on a complaint lodged by the victim woman who is lawyer practising in the Bombay High Court, the Pune’s Vishrambaug Police registered an FIR against Rohit on charges of rape, assault, criminal intimidation and causing voluntary hurt and other offences under Indian Penal Code (IPC) late on Monday night.
However, till Tuesday evening, 40-year-old Rohit had not been arrested.
According to the complaint, Rohit had befriended the victim woman — who had separated from her husband nearly 10 years ago — at a programme in Pune in 2015.
Subsequently, both Rohit and the victim woman came close to each other. After promising to marry her, Tilak had allegedly raped the victim woman on several occasions.
The 41-year-old victim woman had last week planned to stage a dharna in front of Rohit’s residence at Pune. She had also planned to address a press conference to present her side of the story. However, apparently under pressure from Rohit, both the events did not materialise.
Talking to media persons outside the Vishrambaug police station after lodging a complaint against Rohit, the victim woman — who had covered her face with a veil — said, “I have been under severe pressure. There is a threat to my life. I have not been keeping well”.
A former president of the Maharashtra Youth Congress, Rohit is currently an office bearer of the Pune Congress Committee.
Rohit, who comes from one of the illustrious families in Maharashtra, is the great grandson of late Bal Gangadhar Tilak, grandson of former Maharashtra legislative Council chairman late Jayawantrao Tilak and son of Vice Chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth Dr Deepak Tilak.
Rohit had unsuccessfully contested the Maharashtra Assembly polls on a Congress ticket in 2009 and 2014 against Girish Bapat of the BJP, from Kasba constituency in Pune.