Navi Mumbai police arrest 'celebrity' advocate in rape case

NAVI MUMBAI: An advocate, who has represented numerous celebrities in court, has been arrested by Rabale police for allegedly raping a 29-year-old woman from Airoli.
Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh was arrested from his Santacruz residence on Saturday evening. On Sunday, he was produced before Vashi JMFC court, which remanded him to police custody for three days, said Sanjeev Dhumal, senior inspector of Rabale police station.
According to the FIR, the complainant, who hails from Kolhapur, got married in May 2018 and was allegedly subjected to harassment by her husband and in-laws. In 2020, she moved to Airoli with her mother and got acquainted with Vijay Chowgule, a Navi Mumbai Shiv Sena functionary, who provided her "financial and moral support".
The complainant said she was searching online for an advocate to represent her mother's divorce case, when she got Deshmukh's contact information.
She claimed that Deshmukh then gathered information about Chowgule from a former corporator and instructed the complainant to file a false rape case against Chowgule and his son, after which he would extort money from them.
On the night of Jan 8, Deshmukh met the complainant in Koparkhairane. He took her in his Mercedes to an isolated road in Rabale, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her. Claiming that the sexual act had been captured by his dashcam and threatening to make it viral, he allegedly intimidated her, warning of harm if she revealed the incident to anyone, the complainant told police.
On March 24, Deshmukh allegedly coerced her into filing a false rape case against Chowgule and his son Mamit at Amboli police station in Mumbai. Thereafter, Deshmukh extorted Rs 2.7 crore from Chowgule on behalf of the complainant to withdraw the rape case, the FIR stated.
On March 5, Deshmukh summoned her to his Santacruz residence, where he showed her Rs 1.2 crore as her share from the extorted amount and then allegedly sexually assaulted her again, the complainant claimed.
Deshmukh has represented celebrities like Rakhi Sawant in the case against her former husband Adil Khan Durrani case, Sapna Gill in the cricketer Prithvi Shaw selfie controversy, and a drug peddler in the Cordelia cruise drugs case among other high-profile cases.