PANAJI
The Gujarat-based businessman Anant Kumar, charged with trafficking, raping, and blackmailing a young model, will be facing trial in Goa.
During a hearing in the case , the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Mapusa claimed that all charges against the 47-year-old are exclusively triable by the Sessions Court and therefore, the case is required to be committed along with the accused.
A team of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Goa Police had arrested the man from his native place in Bhuj, Gujarat in November 2022 in connection with allegations made by the struggling model that the businessman drugged, raped, and blackmailed her during their business trip to Goa in the same year.
The incident occurred in Calangute, and as per the police complaint, she was re-trafficked to the coastal State and sexually assaulted by four other men at the behest of Kumar. She alleged that the accused threatened to leak her objectionable videos on social media if she refused his demands.
The Goa Police charge-sheeted him under sections 370 (trafficking), 370(A) (exploitation of a trafficked person), 370(A) (2), 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offense), 506-ii (criminal intimidation), 324 (causing hurt by dangerous means), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc) of IPC and Section 4, 5, 6, 7 of ITP Act and Sec 66-E of IT Act.
While directing the accused to remain present before the Principal Sessions Court on August 25, the JMFC also directed to issue notice to the Public Prosecutor about the committal of the case to the Sessions Court.
With evidence pending final analyses from the State Forensic Laboratory, the Investigating Officer is also informed to expedite the return of the Muddemal properties from the Laboratory, Verna, and produce the same before the Sessions Court, Panaji.
