The underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s aide, Riyaz Bhati has come under the radar of the Mumbai police after his wife Rehnuma Bhati had accused him of rape and running a high-profile sex racket. She has further accused other people including Indian cricketers Hardik Pandya and Munaf Patel, senior Congress leader and former BCCI chairman Rajiv Shukla and businessman Prithviraj Kothari of rape.
Rehnuma Bhati alleged that her husband Riyaz Bhati had pushed her to have sexual relations with his business associates and other “high-profile” people. In the complaint, she didn’t mention any specific dates or places where the alleged incidents had happened.
Talking to the media, she said that she has been trying to get the police to register an FIR but they weren’t complying.
In the complaint, she further mentioned that her husband threatened her widow mother to get her married to Riyaz at the age of 15. And soon after marriage, Riyaz forced Rehnuma to establish sexual relationships.
She has further accused Riyaz of torture and physical assault. She claimed that Riyaz would get violent if she resented establishing sexual relationships with his business associates.
Rehnuma further revealed that in 2011-12, Riyan introduced her to Prithviraj in the Trident Hotel where the latter raped her the entire night. When she went to Riyaz for answers to the inhumane treatment, he placed a knife on her and her elder son’s neck and threatened to kill both if she didn’t comply with his demands.
She has further claimed that she was forced to sleep with Munaf Patel in a continental hotel and with Hardik Pandya in a hotel named Trident.
In one of the incidents, she said that she was forced to dance naked in front of Rajeev Shukla and his friends after which they raped her. She further informed that Shukla had kept pictures and videos from their first encounter in 2012-13 and would use them to exploit her.
Rehnuma said that Riyaz had once sent her to Dubai with rich Sheikhs where she was treated badly. In 2016, she started to live separately but he then kidnapped her again forced her into prostitution in 2019. She claimed that Riyaz would repeatedly threaten to kill their two sons if she failed to comply with him.