Seeking bail for Naik, lawyer says complainant was in relationship

Former state minister Ganesh Naik, against whom a case of rape and cheating has been registered in Navi Mumbai, had a consensual live-in relationship with the complainant woman, his lawyer told a court here on Wednesday.

Naik, a BJP MLA from Airoli, has moved the court seeking anticipatory or prearrest bail after a 47-year-old woman alleged that she was

in a live-in relationship with him for several years but four years ago he disowned her and their son, and also threatened her.

Among other charges, the police have slapped a charge of rape against Naik.

The invocation of rape charge was completely "irrelevant", his lawyer Nitin Pradhan argued before Additional Sessions Judge N K Brahme.

The woman's complaint to the police or that given to the Maharashtra State Commission for Women and Deputy Chairman of the state Legislative Council did not mention rape, and the charge was added to the FIR only later, the lawyer argued.

Naik and the woman were in relationship from 1993 to 2017, he told the court, adding that the main issue only revolved around paternity of the child. No custodial interrogation was necessary in this case, the lawyer argued.

Additional public prosecutor Vinit A Kulkarni as well as advocate Lusi Masi, who appeared for the complainant opposed the pre-arrest bail. Naik had threatened the complainant with a revolver, the prosecutor said, adding that her sister recently got a threat call demanding that the complaint be withdrawn.

The judge is likely to pass an order in the matter on Thursday.