mumbai

Updated: May 18, 2019 05:57 IST

A sessions court on Friday denied bail to actor-singer Karan Oberoi, arrested on May 5 on charges of raping a 34-year-old fashion designer-cum-healer on the pretext of marriage.

Oberoi met the complainant on a dating application in August 2016. The woman claimed they were in a relationship and that she gifted him appliances and jewellery and also paid for the mortgage on his apartment.

Denying bail, judge SU Baghele said: “A person in one-sided love may be prepared to give up everything. The acceptance of several valuables by another person would cause one to think in a different direction. The applicant (Oberoi), as a prudent person, could not be expected to have accepted the same unless the relationship between them was a committed relationship.”

Sheetal Pandya, the complainant’s advocate, argued, “They (the defence) say she was obsessed with Karan, but there are messages to show he invited her to dinner and would message ‘I love you’ to her. They are contradicting themselves by saying it was consensual relationship in bail application, but in court they say there was no intimacy.”

Oberoi’s lawyer Dinesh Tiwari said, “In four years, you are relying on one ‘I love you’ message. If there was real love, they would have more photographs.”

Advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh, also representing the complainant, submitted, “Oberoi has cheated other women too. This woman had the courage and bravery to come forth.”

The sessions court noted that according to the FIR, Oberoi committed rape by promising to marry her. “The chats on record reveal that they were chatting in obscene language. It is an observation that they had close intimacy,” the court held.

The court considered the investigation was incomplete and recovery was to be made, stating it would not be appropriate to release Oberoi on bail.

Tiwari said they will approach the Bombay high court next week.