Mumbai: 'Casting Director' Arrested For Physically Assaulting 18-Yr-Old Girl

A 26-year-old "film editor and casting director" has been arrested by the Mumbai Police in connection with assaulting an 18-year-old girl. The accused was reportedly arrested from Gujarat's Surat.

The accused has been identified as Deepak Malakar, a resident of Bihar.

According to the police accuse assaulted an 18-year-old girl after she refused physical intimacy. Later he fled from Mumbai presuming the victim died after the assault that left multiple fractures on her skull.

The teenager, however, later regained consciousness and reached for help. After a two-day stay in the ICU, the victim, a first-year college student, is now recuperating in hospital. The teenager had reportedly befriended Malakar on Facebook last year.

Around two months ago, Malakar approached the victim's parents with a marriage proposal for her. Her parents agreed to it and let the man stay at their 1-BHK flat. During this period the accused tried to initiate physical relations with the victim, who told him that she wanted to complete her studies and try her luck in the Hindi film industry before marrying him, police said.

This angered the accused, who took the girl to his friend's flat in Versova on August 11 and tried to sexually assault her.

"When she resisted, he banged her head to the wall and rained blows on her face till she collapsed. Assuming that she was dead, he panicked, locked the flat from outside, and fled the city," the officer was quoted as saying.

Malakar has reportedly confessed to police that he wanted to kill the victim because she had rejected his advances.

"The accused had switched off his phone, but was communicating with his friends by making calls from local booths and pedestrians' phones in Surat. Finally, the ATM withdrawals helped us track down his location on Monday," said the officer.

Police have filed a case under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (outrage modesty), and 354 (D) (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Malakar.