After five years in jail, Palghar man uses RTI to win bail

A 39yearold automobile engineer Sachin Sambare who was imprisoned for nearly five years on rape charges was released on bail on March 10 after filing a petition in the Bombay High Court from jail alleging that he was a victim of an extortion racket involving women lawyers police officers and othersThe petitioner Sachin Sambare claimed that certain women lawyers befriend men on a matrimonial site dating apps and other social media platforms and eventually coerce them into entering physical relationships Later they demand vast amounts of money threatening them with false rape accusations He alleged that he fell victim to such a gang after coming in contact with a woman lawyer in 2017 and was subsequently wrongfully imprisoned for four years and nine monthsAfter coming across multiple similar cases in newspapers he filed an RTI to gather information about the woman lawyer who accused him The RTI revealed that the lawyer who accused him of rape had allegedly ruined the lives of at least five other men using an identical modus operandi He obtained details of six rape FIRs registered in various police stations Additionally 22 criminal cases had been filed against the complainant and her family across Maharashtra and the charges included cheating extortion forgery trespassing and theftPetitionerrsquos allegationsSambare a resident of Vikramgarh Palghar was working as a manager for an international bus brand In a conversation with midday he alleged that the woman who accused him of rape is part of a larger extortion racket ldquoThe modus operandi of the syndicate which includes women lawyers is to befriend working men get into physical relationships with them and later fabricate financial troubles to ask for money If the men refuse they blackmail them with false rape accusations Members of this gang even appear as witnesses in the FIRsrdquo he saidOnce a complaint is lodged a specific police officer from the station concerned summons the accused for an ldquoinquiryrdquo threatening them with arrest The officer then suggests a settlement demanding large sums of money to make the case disappearSambare recounted that he met the woman in 2017 on Shaadicom where she introduced herself as a lawyermdashthough she was not one at that time as she obtained her law degree only in 2021 Over time their conversations deepened and they began meeting regularlyShe frequently asked him for money under various pretexts and he provided financial help multiple times However in 2019 when she asked for R5 lakh and he refused she filed a rape complaint against him at Rabale police stationThe investigating officer demanded R10 lakh to ldquosettlerdquo the case but when he refused he was arrested on June 23 2020 The officer seized his car and also froze his bank accountldquoThe investigating officer was in close contact with the complainantrsquos lawyers After my arrest he pressured my family members which led my mother to withdraw R2 lakh from an ATM and hand it over to him The officer then froze my bank accountrdquo Sambare saidldquoDuring the pandemic when my mother fell seriously ill my family had no money for her treatment Since my bank account was frozen they were unable to withdraw funds Due to the lack of money my mother did not receive timely medical care and tragically passed awayrdquo he addedldquoAfter my arrest an officer from the Rabale Police demanded R10 lakh from my family When we refused to pay he defamed me by spreading false news in the media claiming that I had duped more than 30 women However when the charge sheet was filed no other names appearedmdashonly the woman who was the main complainant in my caserdquo he saidBehind barsWhile in jail Sambare read newspapers and came across cases from Punjab and Haryana where high courts had rejected the bail application of a woman accused of honeytrapping and filing nine fake rape cases within 14 months Similarly the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court took cognisance of another woman filing six cases from 2016 to 2022 all accusing men of lsquoraping her on the pretext of marriagersquoLast year the Karnataka High Court dealt with multiple rape cases filed by a woman who had accused 10 different people of rape over 10 years The court directed the state DGP to alert all police stations about such fake casesldquoI sought information from the department concerned through RTI regarding how many rape cases the lawyer had registered against whom and in which police stations It was not easy but after multiple appeals I started receiving information The RTI responses revealed that from 2012 to 2025 she had filed rape charges against six people including me in Vashi Tilak Nagar Palghar Rabale CBD Belapur and most recently at Lonavala Gramin police station in February 2025All the accused were doctors engineers government employees and businessmen After gathering information I found that some had been acquitted some were out on bail and in some cases a Bsummary had been filed In the case registered at the Lonavala police station she accused a man working in London of raping her on the pretext of marriage I compiled details from these reports along with high court orders and submitted them to the Navi Mumbai commissioner and other police officials demanding an inquiry and action against the woman However no officer took my complaint seriouslyrdquo he saidLegal recourseldquoIn September 2024 I filed a writ petition in the high court submitting judgments from Punjab Haryana and Madhya Pradesh along with records of the six rape cases filed by the lawyer and 206 pages of supporting documentsrdquo Sambare saidldquoMeanwhile I applied for bail twice in the sessions court and twice in the high court Each time the accused lawyer appeared in court with her legal team alleging that I was threatening and defaming her As a result my bail applications were rejected The court never heard my petitions on meritIn January this year I sent a reminder letter to the court requesting a hearing on my pending writ petitionrdquo he addedObserving that genuine rape cases suffer due to false allegations a Bombay High Court division bench of Justices Revati MohiteDere and Dr Neela Gokhale directed the director general of police DGP Maharashtra to investigate the claims made by the petitioner and submit a report to the court within eight weeksSambare has also sought an inquiry against a police officer allegedly involved in filing false rape casesldquoThis false case has destroyed my world my careermdasheverything I dont know how I will rebuild my life Strict action must be taken against women who misuse the law for their advantage so that this kind of crime can be stoppedrdquo he saidActivist SpeakDeepika Narayan Bhardwaj documentary filmmaker and director of Ekam Nyaay Foundation said Thanks to Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Neela Gokhale this man is being heard after suffering for years Otherwise no one in the system cares about plight of false rape case accused I know of at least four more cases within Mumbai where one woman has filed multiple rape cases against different men alleging false promise of marriage by all in order to either force marriage or extortion I had personally written to the Mumbai police commissioner to form a special investigation team to look into one such case but there was no response It is a tragedy that and police who are themselves custodians of law are abusing rape laws If they are not shying away from misusing law to commit extortion imagine what regular people would be doing Lives are being destroyed due to false rape cases I have worked on cases where men are victims of serial rape case filers who have filed anything from three to 19 rape cases only to extort money and police has taken no action It is time to stop this menace I hope the chief minister takes cognisance of this case and orders an inquiry into all such cases across MaharashtraAllegations are baselessMeanwhile Tukaram Nimbalkar the police officer who arrested Sambare stated All the allegations against me are false and baseless The Human Rights Commission has also conducted an inquiry into the matter The ACP of Vashi division had carried out an investigation but the report did not support the claims made by the complainant Sambare Now that the court has ordered an inquiry the truth will finally come to lightAsked why Sambares bank account was frozen he said The accused was absconding which necessitated this action