Vadodara: University director allegedly rapes, threatens to expel student

Vadodara: A 21-year-old nursing student on Saturday filed a rape case against a prominent educational entrepreneur and founder-president of the privately-owned Parul University located at Waghodia near Vadodara, police said.

The complainant also accused the woman rector of the girls' hostel of the nursing institute affiliated to the university, where she is studying, of abetting the crime, police said.

In the FIR, the complainant said she was raped by 66-year-old Jayesh Patel at his residence, located near the girls' hostel, after the rector Bhavnaben Patel took her there, Vadodara Rural Superintendent of Police Saurabh Tolambiya said.

The nursing student said she was taken to the residence of Patel last night, following which he raped her. After the alleged crime, he threatened to expel her from the institute and fail her in her nursing course in case she revealed it to anyone, police said.

She said she was also taken to his house on Thursday night, although no crime had taken place then. Ms Patel was in the know of the crime and in fact facilitated it, the victim said in the complaint.

A case was lodged at Waghodia police station against Patel under sections 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, while Bhavnaben has been booked under 114 (abetment), police said.

In the past, Patel had contested state assembly elections twice as Congress candidate against sitting BJP lawmaker Madhu Srivastava, but lost both the times. He had recently joined the BJP.