A Kerala man who has been accused of sexually abusing a woman employee has been arrested by Muvattupuzha police on Tuesday. The 24-year-old woman who was working at the travel agency owned by the accused, was allegedly sexually assaulted multiple times. The man is also accused of having asked the woman to convert her religion in order to marry her.
The woman who was working at the travel agency named Alians, has allegedly been sexually assaulted multiple times in the past year by 49-year-old Ali alias Aliyar, who runs the firm.
According to the investigating officers, the accused sexually assaulted the woman multiple times in 2019 at various places including his office in Muvattupuzha. “She was assaulted even during official trips made by the travel agency. One such incident happened during a trip to Goa in 2019,” an investigating officer told TNM.
After abusing her, he allegedly asked her to convert to Islam, and told her he will marry her if she does so. “He already has a wife and a child. This issue of religious conversion was raised by the survivor in her second statement. We don't have evidence to prove this currently, but since she gave such a statement, we haven’t ignored it and are probing more,” said the official.
The police also said that the accused has a history of allegedly sexually harassing female employees. “In our investigation we have found that he had in the past also sexually assaulted women employees in his office, who no longer work there. We have come to know that one of the women whom he allegedly sexually abused earlier, was given 40 sovereign gold by him during her wedding with another person. Such alleged sexual abuse issues was often settled by the man by preventing it from becoming a legal case,” said the officer.
The accused, Ali, has been presently charged with Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape), 351 (A)(1) (Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) and 354 D(1) (Stalking).
According to the police, the accused used to come to the woman’s house and create problems. “The family then made her stay at a convent hostel. He went there too and created some issues, trying to defame her. It was then, the family and the woman filed a police complaint,” the official said. The complaint was filed by the woman earlier this month.
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