Counsellor held for sexual exploitation and blackmail of 50 students at Nagpur clinic over 15 years | Nagpur News – Times of India

NAGPUR: A 45-year-old psychologist-cum-personality development counsellor was arrested a few weeks ago for sexually exploiting and blackmailing at least 50 students at his clinic and residential unit for over 15 years.
Three cases have been registered against him under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Posco) Act and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, by Hudkeshwar police. He ran the clinic in east Nagpur.
The psychologist is currently lodged in Nagpur Central Prison after his sordid sexcapades with students came to light a few weeks ago. His student-turned-wife and another woman friend have also been booked for assisting in enrolling girls in his institute and are on the run, police said.
The arrest and subsequent investigations, which were kept under wraps for some time, have unearthed a shocker — the accused would exploit students, click their photographs in compromising positions, and subsequently blackmail them.
He would take the students, especially girls, with him to tourist destinations on the pretext of learning-oriented trips or picnics where he would consume liquor, engage in sexual acts, and take explicit photographs with them — something which was stored in the cell phone seized from him.
The accused is also suspected of luring the students into consuming a particular medicine, which is being probed. During his outstation trips, the accused preferred staying with girls, police said.
The accused counsellor held camps in different regions of Vidarbha, including Chandrapur, Bhandara, and Gondia. He would lure parents to send their children to his institution for grooming and personality development and promised to develop skills required to meet academic, personal, and professional challenges, including interpersonal development, work and time management. He would motivate parents to send their children, especially girls, to his residential programme.
Subsequently, the accused would ensure the students either stayed with him or at his house-turned-hostel in the vicinity. He would also ensure that gullible parents allowed him to be the students’ ‘local guardian’ and represent them at their schools and colleges.
Finally, a former student whom he was trying to blackmail blew the whistle on the sordid saga. Sources said the 27-year-old survivor, now married, was relentlessly harassed by the accused. Sharing her explicit photographs, he threatened to expose her “past deeds” to her husband unless she succumbed to his desires.
The woman survivor, along with her husband, approached Hudkeshwar police, where an offence was registered. Police tracked down other victims and ensured they too lodged a complaint. “Many of the survivors are married and are reluctant to dig up the past or lodge a complaint against the counsellor,” said a senior police official, adding cases are being made foolproof to ensure conviction.
CP Ravinder Singal has formed a special committee headed by zonal DCP Rashmitha Rao, which comprises child welfare committee members and district child protection officer for technical and legal help to oversee such cases.