THE TIMES OF INDIA (May 7, 2019)

Mumbai: TV actor Karan Oberoi was arrested on Sunday after his former girlfriend pressed charges of rape against him. Officials of the Oshiwara police station said that the 33-year-old woman and the 44-year-old actor have known each other since 2016. The woman has alleged that the actor filmed her in objectionable positions after sedating her.

Oberoi was produced in the Andheri magistrate’s court on Monday. The court sent him to police custody till May 9.

Oberoi, a resident of Andheri (west), had met the woman, an astrologer, through a dating app three years ago. The two met several times over the next few months and grew friendly.

According to the woman’s complaint, Oberoi called her to his residence on one occasion. He offered her a beverage which was allegedly spiked. After the woman felt dizzy, she was allegedly raped. She also accused Oberoi of filming the act.

“The woman has complained that between 2016 and 2018, Oberoi blackmailed her using the video. He demanded money from her and threatened to leak the video if she refused,” said Shailesh Pasalwad, senior inspector, Oshiwara police station.

The police said that the woman had submitted chat messages exchanged between her and Oberoi besides evidence to indicate that he took money from her. “After the victim approached us on Saturday, we registered an FIR against Oberoi,” Pasalwad added.

Oberoi was a member of India’s first Hindi boy band called ‘Band of Boys’ and also starred in the TV show ‘Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi’.
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Karan Oberoi and the fashion designer-and-healer, who has accused him of rape, had spoken to BT in October 2018, when they first approached the police. Both of them contradicted each other's stories at that time. Read on...
Neha Maheshwari and Tanvi Trivedi (BOMBAY TIMES; May 7, 2019)

Karan Oberoi, who has acted in TV shows like Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, Saaya, Dishayen and was a part of the music group A Band of Boys, has been arrested by Mumbai police on charges of rape by a fashion designer-and-healer. The Oshiwara police lodged an FIR against Karan under Section 376 (rape) and 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code. Shailesh Pasalwad, Senior Police Inspector, Oshiwara Police Station, told BT, “Karan has been charged with rape. He has also been accused of filming the act and demanding money from the victim, and threatening to release the video if she didn’t pay up.” On the morning of May 6, the actor was produced in the Andheri Court and he has been taken into police custody till May 9.

FLASHBACK
A non-cognisable complaint (NC) was lodged by the woman against Karan in October 2018, where she accused him of using her financially. Incidentally, Karan, too, had filed an NC against her for mental harassment 10 days before that. At that point, the girl had reached out to Bombay Times and lashed out at Karan, revealing details about their association. When BT contacted Karan, he presented his version of the story. Both their versions clearly contradicted the other. Soon after that, the girl did not want to go public with the story. Given that he has now been accused of rape and extortion, we are producing excerpts from the conversation that we had with both of them...

 WHAT THE GIRL TOLD BT IN OCTOBER 2018
“Karan and I got in touch on a dating app. Initially, he asked me to share basic pictures, followed by nudes, with him guiding me on how they should be taken. We met in October 2016, and got intimate for the first time. We met again four days later and when I told him that I am into healing, he requested me to help him in his career. I started helping him and that’s how I began spending money on him. I replaced his fake gemstones with expensive ones, which cost me around Rs 90,000. He said that he would pay me later, but never did. In May 2017, he told me that his house had been mortgaged and he didn’t want to lose it. I gave him over a lakh for several months to help him save his house. I would give him money otherwise, too, for his expenses. Just doing up his house cost me around Rs 4 lakh and I also bought him a karaoke console, refrigerator, laptop and a mobile phone. He would ask me to get expensive things for him whenever I travelled abroad for my work. The demands were covert — he would tell me that he has been planning to buy a particular item since long, but hasn’t been able to because of money constraints, knowing that I would buy it for him. We were like a couple. However, he never committed and told me that he didn’t want to be in that space as he had been cheated on in his previous relationships. We would often fight over it, but I would keep returning to him after swearing to end the relationship. I felt bad for pressurising him to commit to me while he was going through the stress of losing his house and facing a financial crunch. He also said that had he been better off financially, he would never have let me go. Besides the fact that he never committed to me, the last nail in the coffin was when someone close to him told me that he was just using me. That’s when I asked Karan to return everything I gave him, but he flatly refused. Right now, my biggest concern are the suggestive pictures and videos that we exchanged. In fact, he wanted to shoot us while having sex, but I declined. I am not sure whether he has deleted them or not, though he tells me he has. But for my sanity, I need to be certain that the pictures have been deleted.”

WHAT KARAN OBEROI TOLD BT IN OCTOBER 2018
“I may have flirted with her initially, but then, I am a single guy. There was absolutely no relationship, intimacy or sex between us. I have blocked her from everywhere, as I figured her out almost immediately. She said that her father used to hit her and that no man has ever loved her. I just lent her a sympathetic ear because of what she had claimed to have been through. She told me that she is into occult and wanted to come out of it and pursue an alternative profession. She then suggested that she could do up my house and I decided to help her by allowing her to do that. That was the biggest mistake of my life. I have two houses in Mumbai and neither of them has been mortgaged. I gave her cash to buy items for my home, as she offered me a better deal. Every piece of furniture and other things that she is claiming to have bought for me, including my clothes, have been paid for by me. After getting fed up of her intrusion, around six months ago, I gave standing instructions to the guard of my building that this woman should not be allowed to come up to my flat. She cut her wrist once and threatened me that she would have me booked for abetment of suicide. I figured out that something was amiss and that’s when I decided to distance myself from her. While she is claiming to be in a relationship even now, I distanced myself in August 2016. If you think just because I send you hugs and love you are in a relationship with me, you must be really twisted, because then I’d be in a relationship with 50,000 women. I have never robbed a woman of her dignity, but this is not normal. I am the victim here. I have lived a nightmare for these two years. The only reason I would answer her calls once in a while was to protect my family, as I feared that she could harm them with black magic. My worry was my mother and my health woes, as she claimed that she had the power to do anything. I have been through hell just because I declined her requests of getting into a relationship with her or have any kind of intimacy with her. She filed an NC against me after she learnt about my complaint. In fact, on the day of filing the NC, she called me and said that she was at the cop station and told me that she would ruin my life if I didn’t marry her the next day. I have blocked several numbers from which she called me. If you are willing to stoop to any level to get your way, where does it end?”