Woman accuses Maha minister of rape; he says it is blackmail

Mumbai: A woman has accused Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde of rape and claimed the Mumbai police ignored her complaint.

The 37-year-old woman, an aspiring singer, said she wrote to Mumbai police commissioner on January 10, stating that Munde repeatedly raped her in 2006. She also claimed that she approached Oshiwara police here earlier but her complaint was not accepted.

Munde (45) said the woman's claims were part of a conspiracy to blackmail him. He, however, acknowledged that he was in a relationship with the complainant’s sister and has two children with her.

He said the woman with whom he was in a relationship had been blackmailing him since 2019 and he had filed a police complaint regarding this matter.