RELATIONSHIP OVER: THE WOMAN'S FATHER DISOWNS DAUGHTER

38-year-old Chembur resident Rahat Zakira Khan, booked for sexually assaulting minor, claims she tied the knot with him in a Vashi temple.Rahat Zakira Khan, the 38-year-old woman from Chembur, who was arrested for allegedly ‘raping’ a boy her son's age, claims that he is her ‘husband’ and that they were ‘married’ in a Vashi temple.The 16-year-old boy, who is a friend of Rahat’s son, has been a frequent visitor to her house over the past three months. When word of the ‘relationship’ spread and she was confronted by women in her building, she said she and the boy had married in a temple, and that they would marry legally in court once he came of age.On one occasion, she was even taken to the police station, but the boy made no complaint, and she got away with a warning.The alleged sexual harassment continued for three months before the boy filed a complaint with the RCF police this week. Rahat was arrested and booked under relevant sections of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.According to the police, sexual harassment of the boy began late last year in a Chembur colony where Rahat and the victim live two blocks apart. The boy told police that when he first visited her home to meet his friend, only Rahat was present, and she asked him to wait till her son returned.“She sat next to him, pinched his cheeks and touched his shoulder," said boy's father, a tailor. “He was uncomfortable with this behaviour and rushed out. He told me about it, and I warned him not to go there again. Few days later, Rahat met him on the street and invited him home. Unaware of her intentions, my son went there."Rahat allegedly spiked the boy's soft drink, forced herself on him, and allegedly made a video recording which she used to blackmail the boy."He wasn’t unconscious, and knew what she had done,” said Mohammed Bakai, a local resident who first coaxed the boy to reveal the harassment. “He was sacred as she threatened to file a rape case. She also said she would complain to his father and tell him about the video. She used to give money to her son and send him out, so that she’d be alone with the boy.”Bakai further said, “When word spread, some women approached Rahat and found the boy at her house. When they questioned her about his presence, she replied that he was her husband. The disgusted women got into an altercation with her and even took her to the police station. The boy was called to give a statement, but he didn’t complain and Rahat was released.”Rahat’s neighbours don’t know much about her. “She interacted with us on and off, but didn’t reveal much about herself,” said one woman. “We’ve seen the boy coming to her house. He’s grown up and aware about such a relationship. The woman shouldn’t be the only one to be blamed.”The boy’s father told Mirror that he learnt of the sexual relationship about a month ago. “I got a call from his tuition teacher, saying he wasn’t attending. I realised he was losing sight of studies, was becoming depressed and losing weight. While he refused to tell me anything, my wife said that was spending a lot of time at Rahat’s house. I told him we’d file a police complaint but he was scared. We also found a note he’d written, mentioning that if anything happened to him, Rahat would be responsible.”The breakthrough came on Monday when the boy plucked up courage and approached Bakai, saying he wanted to file a complaint. “We then approached the police,” said Bakai.The police are now collecting evidence to make a watertight case against Rahat. “We’ve got hold of pictures of them in a restaurant, and witnesses who saw them together. We’ve also found two people who were witness to their ‘marriage’ in a Vashi temple and pictures of the ceremony. She took him to a friend’s home in Colaba and had physical relations there too,” said API Hanumant Kamble, the investigating officer.“We haven’t found the video yet, but have sent her mobile phone for forensic tests,” added Senior Inspector Dilip Raut of the RCF police.Rahat Khan, who is unemployed at the moment, once worked as a bar dancer and lived in Nagpada. She has a 65-year-old father and a step-mother who have disowned her. “I don’t care if she’s alive or dead. Our relationship is over,” her father told Mirror. A Girgaon resident, he’s unaware of the case against his daughter.He said that Rahat’s mother died six years ago, after which he remarried. “In 1996, when she was around 20, she left home after a fight and we later heard she had married,” he said. “I went to Saudi Arabia for a while and when I returned in 2001, she had a kid. We kept her at home for the kid’s sake,” he said.The relationship, however, soured four years ago when Khan made allegations of assault and later rape, against her father. The cases, he said, were only to get him to part with one of his rooms, and she dropped the cases when he agreed.There is some confusion over Rahat’s marital status. While her father said she married, the man he calls her ex-husband, a 44-year-old businessman, said they did not.“We were physically intimate, but never married,” he said, not wishing to be identified. When asked if he’s the father of Rahat’s son, he said, “I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not,” adding that he has no relationship with the boy.He said he’s known Rahat for 15 years, but has had no physical relationship with her for 10 years, though they’ve been in touch. He said he often met her and give her money. “Between 2008 and 2010, I gave her Rs 8.4 lakh,” he said.However, in the past one year, she filed cases of assault and rape against him. “One day I went to her house to give her money. We had a fight and she complained to the cops. What started off as an assault charge was changed to a rape case,” he said. The case is still being investigated. He added that Rahat has also filed other cases against him at a Kurla police station. “In fact, she told a friend that she’d withdraw the cases if I gave her money,” he said.