A businessman from Borivali, who had allegedly raped a woman in 2018 after threatening to kill her husband with the help of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested on his return from Las Vegas at the city airport on Wednesday. Police had issued a lookout notice after receiving a complaint from the woman on June 7.
The accused, identified as Mauris Oliver Norhona, 50, has been charged under sections 376, 420, 354 (B and C), and 506 for rape, outraging modesty of a woman, cheating, and threatening under the Indian Penal Code.
According to the complaint filed at MHB police station, the 48-year-old woman and her husband had met Norhona in 2014 at a gymnasium in IC Colony, Borivali West.
Later, when they wanted to sell a piece of land at Botharwadi, Pune, Norhona enquired about it, and since then, he tried to get closer to the couple, the woman said. “Norhona then gifted me a mobile phone on my birthday which my husband was aware of. We took him as a decent man and became friends with him.”
The couple in July 2014 sold the land for ₹1.50 crore. “Norhona then asked us to invest in his cosmetics business, Faith Saloon, and claimed that his investors had got 300% in returns,” the complaint said.
The two then consulted Norhona’s friend Anthony Remindias, who told them that he too had earned profit from his investment in the business. The couple invested ₹88 lakh in the next one year, and in 2015 when they asked for the profit, Norhona said the business was running at a loss and sought three months to pay back their money, the woman said in her complaint. “We were in stress as my husband had lost his job with Jet Airways and I too had quit my job.”
Nearly three years later, Norhona on March 14, 2018, called the woman to his house to discuss the repayment.
The woman said she went to his house where Norhona offered her a soft drink and sat next to her. He then told the woman that he would return all their money and began forcing himself on her. When she pushed him back, he removed his T-shirt and started taking photos and videos while touching her inappropriately, the complaint said.
“Norhona then threatened me that he would post the photos on social media and get my husband killed by Dawood gang members as he was close to them,” the woman said. Norhona then raped her.
Police officials said they had issued a lookout notice as Norhona was not in India.
“We learnt on Tuesday night that he would land in Mumbai from the United States in the early hours of Wednesday, and we arrested him at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport,” Sudhir Kudalkar, senior police inspector of MHB police station, said.
Norhona was produced before a court which sent him to police custody for five days.