PUNE: Well-known Marathi author and social activist Laxman Mane (63), a recipient of the Padma Shri award, has been booked by the Satara police for allegedly raping three women cooks in an ‘ashramshala’, a residential school for underprivileged students. The women, in separate complaints to the police, alleged that Mane raped them on the promise of confirming them in their jobs in the school.

“Three separate offences have been registered against Mane under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code. He is not traceable. We have sent police teams to search for him,” Amol Tambe, additional superintendent of police (Satara), told TOI.

Mane’s son, who spoke to TOI, said his father was being falsely implicated. Mane is the executive president of the school. As a former MLC (member of the legislative council), he was supported by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). He shot to fame after the publication of his book, ‘Upara’ (outcaste), which dwelt on the plight of the nomadic and denotified tribes in Maharashtra.

Police inspector Shrirang Langhe, the investigating officer in the case, said that the women have stated in their complaints that they were repeatedly raped by Mane between 2003 and 2010 at the ashramshala, at Mane’s residence in Satara and also at a guesthouse in Pune.

Tambe said one of the three women approached the Satara taluka police station on Sunday and lodged a complaint accusing Mane of raping her. “While recording her statement, she also revealed the names of the other two women who had allegedly been similarly abused by Mane,” Tambe said. The police contacted the two women on Monday and recorded their statements, following which two additional complaints of rape were lodged against Mane.

When contacted, Mane’s son Bhai, who is also the director of the ashramshala, told TOI, “All these allegations made against my father are baseless. Some of the employees of the school seem to have conspired to implicate my father in a false case.”

“My father was actively involved in social and political work between 2003 and 2010. It was during this period that he had undergone a major back surgery. He later also met with a serious accident,” Bhai said.

(With inputs from Atul Deshpande in Satara)

