Shiv Sena corporator booked for rape, stalking in Navi Mumbai

NAVI MUMBAI: The police registered a case of rape and stalking against Sahil Chougule, 25, a co-opted corporator from the Shiv Sena, on Wednesday.

Chougule called the accusations false and said he was the victim of a political conspiracy.

Chougule was accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman multiple times beginning July 2024. His aide, Amit Maurya, a resident of Chinchpada, Airoli, was made a co-accused for booking a hotel room in his own name where Chougule allegedly sexually assaulted the woman.

Chougule and Maurya have not been arrested yet as the case is under investigation, said senior inspector Balkrushna Sawant.

Chougule said that the woman made false allegations of rape against him and that she often did this to extort money from her targets.

“Last year, she targeted a police inspector of Rabale MIDC and lodged a false complaint against him. I have submitted an audio clip to Rabale police wherein the complainant woman is claiming that she traps her targets by lodging false complaint of sexual assault on her and blackmails them for extorting money.

Actually, it seems to be a political conspiracy by a person from a rival political party to defame me for which the complainant woman was used as a pawn to register a false FIR against me with the intention of destroying my political career,” Chougule said.

Sahil Chougule is the nephew of Shiv Sena corporator Vijay Chougule, the leader of the opposition in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.

The woman alleged in her complaint that in July 2024, when she went to Chougule’s Airoli apartment to meet her uncle, who worked there, he told her to wait in his apartment till her uncle returned. She alleged that he gave her a soft drink laced with sedatives and she fell unconscious. She said that when she regained consciousness, she realised that he had sexually assaulted her.

The complainant alleged that Chougule threatened to make her nude images viral on social media. He even threatened to harm her husband and minor son, said her complaint.

She said that when she requested Chougule to delete her obscene images in his mobile, he refused and blocked her number. The complaint said that when she contacted him from an unknown number for deleting her images, he hurled expletives at her and again refused to delete her images.

She claimed that the police refused to register the FIR when she approached them on Sept 9. She said in October her husband left for his hometown with their child after he came to know about it. On June 1, she approached a Shiv Sena (UBT) politician, who helped her lodge a police complaint.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)