Paraskar regarded the victim as his sister: lawyer

The lawyer of senior IPS officer Sunil Paraskar today argued that his client had once told the Mumbai-based model, who has accused him of rape, that he looked upon her as his "sister".
The sessions court here, presided over by special judge Vrushali Joshi, is hearing Paraskar's application for pre-arrest ('anticipatory') bail.
"Paraskar wrote an e-mail on June 27 to the victim in which he said he regarded her as a sister," his lawyer Rizwan Merchant told the court today.
"The victim did not react to that remark. The conduct (Paraskar) shows that there was a healthy relationship between them," Merchant contended.

In some e-mails, the victim continued to acknowledge Paraskar as a friend, the lawyer said.
Referring to the woman's contention that she filed the first information report (FIR) late because she was undergoing emotional trauma and depression, Merchant said her twitter account did not reflect such a frame of mind.
Victim even tweeted a picture of her on December 1 last year, "the day when she said Paraskar allegedly molested her", he said, adding that on December 7 too -- when according to her Paraskar raped her -- she tweeted about something, then why she did not tweet about the alleged rape.

Merchant also argued that when the victim approached her previous lawyer, advocate Rizwan Siddiquie, for sending Paraskar a legal notice, she had the FIR in mind. "She kept asking Siddiquie if an FIR can be registered against Paraskar," Merchant claimed.