mumbai

Updated: Mar 31, 2018 10:15 IST



A 63-year-old veteran actress was allegedly raped by businessman Mohammed Sarfaraz Ehsaan, alias Anup Amar Khanna, on the day she supported the allegations of two women who claimed he had duped them.

The actress told the police that she went through the ordeal after her statement was recorded by the Bangur Nagar police on July 27, 2016 in connection with the cheating and forgery case that was filed based on Goregaon resident Pooja Sahani’s complaint.

According to the police, the actress told them that she read in the newspaper that Sarfaraz was arrested on February 2, 2016 for cheating a woman named Dipali Patil. After this, the actress began asking the businessman to repay the money he had borrowed from her and showed him the papers of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) flats in Lokhandwala which he had purportedly bought for her two sons by selling her jewellery worth Rs 4.5 crore.

After getting bail, Sarfaraz had given her allotment papers of a Santacruz flat and a letter of the Juhu Tara Road flat that he claimed to have booked in the names of her sons. However, on February 15, 2016, the actress learnt that Sarfaraz was arrested by the Bangur Nagar police for cheating Pooja Sahani. The police said on July 27, 2016 the actress was called to Bangur Nagar police station to record her statement.

“Sarfaraz escorted her to the police station. However, while returning, he threatened her as he was angry about the facts that she had revealed to the police,” said an officer. On entering her house with the excuse of using the bathroom, he sexually abused her. Pooja Sahani confirmed the accusation and said that not just the actress and her, Sarfaraz had cheated several women and extracted money from them on the promise of marriage.

Sahani, a house wife, told HT that she contacted Sarfaraz in 2016 through a matrimonial website as a match for her daughter. Although Sahani’s daughter rejected him, he kept in touch with Sahani. “He told me that I was like his mother and then began visiting me. He then gave me an offer to buy a Mhada flat in Lokhandwala Complex. I gave him Rs 25 lakh for the flat, which he said he could get for me at a lower rate,” she said.

Sahani said she was approached by Dipali Patil who had filed a case against Sarfaraz in Versova police station claiming he had prepared a fake marriage certificate and cheated her.

“Patil who stays in Dubai, sent us the fake certificate and also other proofs of them being married earlier as well to another woman named Suchitra Jain. He also had another wife in Dehradun. Then we approached Bangur Nagar police. We had heard that he was cheating the actress using the same modus operandi, after which the police contacted her,” said Sahani.