PETALING JAYA: A former Indian state minister was arrested in Bengaluru, India, today after allegedly raping a Malaysian Indian actress, along with a slew of other alleged offences.
M Manikandan, who served as Tamil Nadu’s IT minister from 2016 to 2019, has been charged with rape, causing miscarriage, causing hurt, cheating and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code. He has also been charged under the IT Act.
Manikandan’s arrest precedes a complaint lodged by actress Shantini Theva with Indian police last month.
She had claimed to have been in a live-in relationship with Manikandan for five years, and that he had promised to marry her despite being already married.
According to a report in the Indian newspaper The Hindu, Manikandan was refused “anticipatory bail” on Wednesday.
The report said Shantini alleged that Manikandan made her pregnant thrice, forced her to get abortions, and threatened her family members in Malaysia when she insisted that he marry her.
In a separate report in another newspaper, The Indian Express, Shantini alleged that the former state minister attacked her on multiple occasions, blackmailed her by threatening to release their intimate photos and videos online, and issued death threats.
The former state minister has reportedly denied all the allegations.
The Hindu’s report stated that Manikandan was introduced to Shantini in 2017 and he developed a friendship on the pretext of investing in Malaysia. - FMT
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