Landlord held for raping foreigner in Delhi

NEW DELHI, JUNE 26, 2013 [TOI] --- A landlord in Hauz Khas, reportedly the nephew of a former Delhi mayor, has been arrested for allegedly raping a foreigner and attempting to rape another in the same building on Sunday night. The two women were staying in his flats as tenants. Rajeev Panwar was arrested on Monday on the complaint of one of the women, who is a US national.  Panwar has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody, till July 8.  Police said the two women had been staying as tenants in different flats owned by Panwar in Hauz Khas for the past several months.  He befriended one of the women—police variously described her as a Russian and an Uzbek—and visited her for dinner on Sunday night. He reportedly stayed back and raped her.  The American woman in her complaint said he later entered her residence and tried to rape her while she was asleep (an offence called technical rape). The woman woke up, raised an alarm and called police.  Panwar's grandfather was a member of Parliament and president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. A case of rape has been registered against him at the Hauz Khas police station.  The family of the accused, however, denied the allegations saying both women had failed to pay rent and on being asked to vacate their flats had falsely implicated him.