AHMEDABAD: A woman Lieutenant Colonel of Indian Army now posted in north India has accused a city-based police inspector of rape. The accused PI, F M Qureshi who is posted as the security in-charge at the Gujarat high court, has been arrested by the crime branch at his Gandhinagar residence.

On Monday night, the woman Army officer met the city police commissioner, S K Saikia, and accused Qureshi of raping her multiple times in various cities of the country. Saikia intimated senior officials of the crime branch and directed the agency to take her complaint.

Mahila police station officials under supervision of crime branch authorities registered her complaint and simultaneously arrested Qureshi.

Assistant commissioner of police, crime branch, K M Patel said, "The Lieutenant Colonel has been sent for medical examination to the Civil Hospital ."

In her complaint, the woman has said that in October when she was posted in Bhuj, a junior officer had committed suicide. Family members of the suicide victim had later filed a complaint of abetment to suicide against the woman Army officer at the Bhuj police station . She had then moved the Gujarat high court and filed a quashing petition against the police complaint. Here, she met Qureshi who helped her out in the legal issue . She was so impressed by Qureshi's conduct that she had written a letter of appreciation to the city police commissioner.

The two continued to meet. The couple stayed in hotels in Ahmedabad and also went touring to several hill stations including Dehradun, Nainital, Kulu and Manali. The woman claims that Qureshi had promised to marry her and only then she had accepted his advances. All these meetings took place in over a month - between November 1 and December 6. The woman claims that Qureshi went back on his word. It is then that she filed the complaint against Qureshi for getting physically intimate with her by making false promises.

Extortion claim

On December 11, 2012, Qureshi had filed an application of complaint at the Sola police station in which he had claimed that the woman Lt Col is threatening him and his wife over telephone and is trying to blackmail him. Qureshi claimed that she was demanding Rs 25 lakh. He had also included call detail records of the mobile phones used by the woman to make those calls. Qureshi also wrote letters of intimation to Gujarat high court and city police commissioner in this matter.

Complainant's flip-flop

On December 11, the woman had written a letter to the city police commissioner to complain against Qureshi. However, on December 29, she wrote another letter to the commissioner, seeking to withdraw her complaint.

Cases against Qureshi

In 2005, when Qureshi was posted in the Anti-Terrorist Squad he was accused in a complaint of loot at the Dabhoda police station in Gandhinagar district. This matter is still under investigation. Another complaint was registered against Qureshi for allegedly asking for a bribe from a builder's son caught in illegal possession of a country-made pistol. Qureshi was charged with extortion in a complaint filed in this regard at the CID (crime). The issue is now in court.

Hotels under scanner

The woman has mentioned two hotels - Ashish and Neelkanth - where she had stayed with Qureshi. The cops have traced Ashish hotel and sought for CCTV footage to establish the woman's claims. "However, the hotel owners have said that the CCTV footage is no more available since the hard disk where all the video recordings were stored is corrupt now." There are several hotels which have Neelkanth in the names. "Since the complainant is unable to pinpoint the exact location of this hotel, we propose to take her to every hotel with this name to zero in on the right one," said crime branch officials.

