AHMEDABAD: Taking advantage of the trust we place in the medical profession, a physiotherapist preyed on a 35-year-old homemaker who had come to him for treatment. Nileshkumar Nayak has been arrested, allegedly, for raping and blackmailing the woman.
According to a complaint filed by the victim, Nayak took photographs of her when she was unconscious, promised to delete the compromising photographs for money but further violated her through rape.
Maninagar inspector D P Unadkat said, “Nayak has been accused of cheating in financial cases. There are warrants against him in a couple of police stations. We have established the complainant’s claim about the money transferred to his account.”
The police are also investigating if Nayak had the relevant degrees to practice medicine.
The disturbing saga began when the complainant, who had been battling diabetes for the past three years, sought treatment for diabetes, hair fall and skin issues at a clinic in Maninagar between 2021 and 2022. That’s where she met Nayak, who was then part of the clinic’s team. “We would consult him over the phone as well. After three months, I called for an appointment and was told that he had left to run a clinic in Nikol. Since it was far, I could not visit but he offered to provide treatment over the phone,” she told police.
He later established his clinic in Maninagar. In Jan 2024, Nayak allegedly told the complainant that he urgently needed money as his father had been hospitalised. Due to their rapport, the complainant allegedly transferred Rs 2 lakh in instalments, with a promise that the amount would be refunded in 15 days.
However, claiming that his father’s medical claim was pending, he did not return the money.
A month later, Nayak reopened the clinic. The complainant, who had high-grade fever, went to him for treatment. “I fainted at the clinic, and he admitted me for three hours. During the time, he took advantage of my condition and took inappropriate photographs of me.
A few days later, I developed a reaction to the medicine he gave so I went to him again. Nayak asked me to apply a cream in a room at the clinic. He advised me to remove my jewellery. I forgot the jewellery on the bed, and he offered to safeguard it. Whenever I asked for it back, he would say he was attending an emergency case. A week later, when I went to the hospital, Nayak told me that he had mortgaged the jewellery for money,” the complainant told police.
When the complainant informed her husband, Nayak allegedly told them about the photographs he had clicked of hers and threatened to release them online unless his demand for money was met. The complainant told the police, “He kept asking for more and more. Desperate, I threatened to kill myself and leave a note blaming him. He promised to delete the photos if I met him in person. In March 2024, he called me to Maninagar Crossing, from where he took me to a hotel and raped me under the pretence of deleting the photos.”
However, instead of deleting the photographs, Nayak allegedly used it to rape her repeatedly at the hotel between March and May. She finally filed a complaint and Nayak was arrested by Maninagar police on Wednesday.
The police registered a case under Sections 376(2)(N) (commits rape repeatedly on the same woman), 506(1) (criminal intimidation), 354A(1)(i) (sexual harassment), and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
Did Nayak falsely treat patients?
A web of alleged misconduct surrounds the physiotherapist. Beyond the initial complaint of extortion, cops are now probing whether he falsely treated other patients for fever, potentially endangering their health. The police are also investigating if Nayak had the relevant degrees to practice medicine.
Financial dealings under scanner
The police are seeking to uncover the full extent of his alleged financial improprieties, as evidence suggests that Nayak had taken money from a couple of other people and failed to return it. In his statement to the police, the physiotherapist claims he had taken the funds for his business and refuted all allegations of blackmailing the complainant. The complainant’s bank records paint a starkly different picture, corroborating her allegations of having paid him money at regular intervals.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)