Congress MLA and former minister Vinay Kulkarni accused of rape; FIR filed in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A 34-year-old woman has accused Congress MLA and former minister Vinay Kulkarni of rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation.

An FIR registered by the Sanjay Nagar police on Tuesday named Kulkarni, the MLA from Dharwad, as accused 1 and another man named Arjun, supposedly his aide, as accused 2, senior police sources confirmed to DH.

The woman, who identified herself as a social worker, told the police that she met Kulkarni at his house in Bengaluru in early 2022. Kulkarni had sought her contact from a mutual connection, as per the FIR seen by DH.

The victim alleged that Kulkarni used to call her late in the night and what was initially a normal conversation soon turned sexual. As per the FIR, Kulkarni used to video call her in the nude and invite her to meet up. When the woman refused, she alleged that Kulkarni sent his goons to threaten her. Unwillingly, the complainant agreed to have conversations.

Somewhere in March or April, Kulkarni was in Belagavi and allegedly invited the woman there. The victim thought it was urgent and arrived at Belagavi Circuit House.

According to the victim, Kulkarni inappropriately touched her inside the room where he was alone. Kulkarni let her ago when someone else arrived, the FIR noted.

It was further alleged that Kulkarni continued the phone calls and used vulgar language during the conversations. The victim was scared and remained quiet, the FIR noted.

FIR details victim's testimony of being raped twice

On August 24, 2022, Kulkarni allegedly called the victim to his house when she was in Bengaluru to meet then-Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from the BJP. At around 4 pm that day, the woman arrived at Kulkarni’s house, as per the FIR.

Kulkarni allegedly picked her up in a car and took her to a deserted area near the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Devanahalli. The woman told the police that she was raped and sexually assaulted inside the car and Kulkarni promised to take care of her. Kulkarni also allegedly threatened her to keep quiet.

As per the woman, somewhere in September 2022, Kulkarni allegedly abused her suspecting that she had leaked an audio conversation between the two. When the woman approached Arjun, the second suspect and Kulkarni’s aide, he allegedly told her to go with him to Bengaluru as he would “fix everything”.

The woman denied that she would come alone and only agreed if some people known to her would accompany her. On October 2, 2022, the woman reached Bengaluru with her aides but was allegedly told by Arjun to come alone to a hotel and promised her to “take her and drop her back safely”.

The victim alleged that Arjun took her to a deserted area where Kulkarni was present. She alleged that Kulkarni slapped her. When the woman told her that it was not her mistake about the leaked audio, Kulkarni told her to make promises to deities to not reveal anything and began pleading with her and emotionally blackmailing her, as per the FIR.

She further alleged that the same day she was taken to Dharmasthala where she was raped again. She also accused Arjun of deleting the conversations, videos and photos from her mobile phone.

A case was registered under IPC sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman), 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty). Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act was also invoked.

"The victim underwent a medical examination on Tuesday evening," a senior officer told DH.

Counter FIR filed

Interestingly, Kulkarni had filed a complaint with the Sanjay Nagar police on Monday evening accusing the woman and Power TV MD Rakesh Shetty of trying to extort Rs 2 crore from him. The TV channel had aired the woman’s allegations and some purported visuals of Kulkarni on a video call with her. The FIR based on Kulkarni’s complaint was also registered, senior officers confirmed.