Nagpur woman alleges rape at Wardha Road hotel, says accused filmed her and demanded Rs 1 lakh

A 39 year old woman from Wardha district has accused a man of raping her at a hotel in Nagpur and then using a video of the assault to extort money from her. Sonegaon police have registered a case against the accused, Umesh Singh Suryavanshi, 40, a resident of Pipri Meghe, and have intensified the search for him after he went absconding once the complaint came to light.

According to the police complaint, the woman works in a government department and first met Suryavanshi in 2023, after which the two became friends. She has alleged that he called her from Wardha to Nagpur and took her to the Airport Centre Point hotel on Wardha Road, where he raped her in a room and recorded the act on video without her consent.

The woman told police that after the alleged assault, Suryavanshi began blackmailing her using the video, demanding Rs 1 lakh and threatening to make the footage public on social media and defame her if she did not pay. She said the repeated threats eventually pushed her to approach the police, on the basis of which Sonegaon police registered a case and opened an investigation.

Police have said that once Suryavanshi is arrested, he will be questioned to establish the remaining facts of the case. The allegations of rape, filming an obscene video and demanding Rs 1 lakh will be tested against the evidence gathered during the investigation, and the complete picture is expected to emerge only once that process is finished.

The Airport Centre Point hotel has figured in local controversy before this case. It has previously drawn police action over gambling on its premises, and there have been recurring, unverified claims in the city about late night parties and spa and massage services offered there. There have also been informal claims in the past about misuse of the hotel's CCTV footage for blackmail, though these have not been independently confirmed and police have found no link between them and the current case so far.

Investigators are expected to lean on CCTV footage from the hotel, its entry and exit records, and other digital evidence to reconstruct the sequence of events. Police may examine the timing of when the woman and the accused entered and left the hotel, along with call records and other technical material connected to the case, as they work to corroborate the complaint and trace the accused.

For now, Suryavanshi remains absconding, and the case rests on the woman's complaint pending his arrest and questioning. Police have not disclosed a timeline for when they expect to trace him.