New Delhi: It started as a date between an Indian-origin man and an Australian woman, complete with sparks, drinks and good conversation, at a Melbourne pub in 2012. Seven years later, it has spawned a two-nation manhunt for a suspected rapist who appears to have slipped under the radar.
Jatin Deol, 40, a US citizen accused of rape, assault and forcing oral sex on a woman in Australia seven years ago, flew into the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, in November 2012, according to files with Interpol.
Deol, who had refused all allegations upon his arrest in Melbourne in 2012, made a deposit of AUD 10,000 to secure bail from an Australian magistrate, purportedly to attend a wedding function.
According to Interpol and Indian immigration authorities, he has not left India since then. But he remains untraceable.
On 28 September 2018, Australia, citing a 2008 extradition treaty with India, asked New Delhi to launch extradition proceedings against Deol.
Following the request, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was given the responsibility to trace and arrest Deol. A non-bailable warrant was issued against him on 5 January this year after he failed to appear in court.
“He has not appeared in court even once since the extradition proceedings against him began, which is why a non-bailable warrant has been issued against him,” said a source in the External Affairs Ministry. “The CBI has been entrusted with the responsibility to arrest him.”
Contacted by ThePrint with queries about efforts made to arrest Deol, the CBI had not responded by the time of this report’s publishing. This report will be updated when they do.
The allegations against Deol can be traced back to a Saturday night — 28 April 2012 — when he is said to have invited an Australian woman home after a chance encounter in a bar. That’s where the accounts of Deol and the woman begin to differ.
While the chase for him continues, ThePrint pores over the case file, which includes the statements of the suspect and the survivor herself, to get the story behind a crime that has left investigators in two countries scratching their heads.
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‘Told him I was on my period, just to escape’
It was a Saturday — 28 April 2012.
The alleged rape survivor was at the Toff in Town pub on Swanston Street, Melbourne, with a female friend when she met Deol, who was out partying with his colleagues from Movida, a popular local resto-bar.
According to her statement in the case file, around 1.40 am, after she had consumed two cocktails and a glass of champagne, she went to the smoking area, where she met Deol.
The two then had a “good conversation over drinks”, she said, and took a taxi for Deol’s home on Richardson Street, Carlton North, around 3.45 am.
According to her, it was a terrace apartment with common walls.
Once the duo reached his apartment, she said, they had a few drinks, a smoke, and started kissing, which was consensual. However, Deol, she claimed, soon got aggressive.
The woman alleged that Deol then forced himself on her and asked her to have sex with him “both ways”. According to her, she agreed to his request for fear that he would get angrier, but lied to him that she was on her period.
“Thinking that he may harm her, she agreed, and said she was on her period and wanted to remove her tampon before they have sex and that he should allow her to use the washroom,” the case file says.
The woman, in her statement to police, which is part of the case file and has been accessed by ThePrint, said she used it as an excuse to flee.
While the woman was in the bathroom, thinking of ways to escape, Deol allegedly stood outside, waiting for her. When she did not come out for over 30-40 seconds, he allegedly pushed the door open, went inside and held her by her arm.
When she tried to push him back and shut the door, her hand came between the door and its frame, and her wrist was injured, the case file says.
‘He forced oral sex. Threatened to snap my neck if I bit him’
Deol allegedly managed to pull her out and pushed her to the ground. She was then allegedly dragged to the bedroom, where Deol forced her to perform oral sex.
“He stood in front of me, made me sit on the ground and then held me by my neck. He said if I bit him, he would snap my neck,” she said in her statement to police. According to the case file, “It was the first time she felt that the man was capable of killing her.”
The woman stated that she briefly managed to free herself and ran towards the door but Deol again grabbed her, this time by the throat, and held her in a headlock.
As she screamed for help, Deol allegedly threatened to kill her. “He said he would kill me if I screamed,” the woman said in her statement.
When the woman continued to plead with him, Deol allegedly asked her to accompany him to his bedroom with him and get dressed if she wanted to leave.
According to the woman, she thought it was a ploy to take her back to the bedroom and she made a run for it the moment he eased his grip on her, leaving behind her underwear, handbag and a pair of stockings.
The woman then approached Deol’s next-door neighbour, whose statement is in the case file as well.
“I heard a woman scream,” the neighbour said in the statement, “She was saying, ‘Why don’t you kill me already’, ‘Please let me go’, ‘get off me’.”
Later, when asked about the screams heard from his apartments, Deol told police they were not calls for help, but “sexual noises made during an intercourse”.
Multiple injuries suggest assault
Soon after the woman sought assistance from Deol’s neighbour, police were called and he was arrested the same morning.
According to the case file, in keeping with the woman’s claim, police found her stockings, handbag and underwear at Deol’s house, along with two used condoms.
A medical examination carried out on the woman revealed several injuries, including a bruise on her head and a scratch on her neck, and a deep bruise on her outer left hip.
The doctor noted a “semicircular area of redness with area of central pallor…” on her neck, besides bruises on the back of her hand, her wrist, and elbow.
She was found to have a “blue mark on the inner upper arm”, two circular bruises on her foot, and a scratch on the back of her leg.
According to the case file, the doctor who examined the woman said in his statement that “there were several injuries of neck… and she was having difficulty in swallowing. The injury was caused due to pressure on neck which is suggestive of assault…”
Deol was subsequently charged with rape, physical assault and other sections equivalent to the IPC’s for wrongful confinement, and criminal intimidation, voluntarily causing hurt.
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His defence: ‘She was into S&M, I refused’
Deol said all his interactions with the woman on the night of 28 April were “consensual”, telling police that he had no recollection of him having “abused” or “sexually assaulted” her.
In his statement to police and his lawyer, Deol said the woman was into sadomasochism (S&M), where partners derive pleasure from pain, and he had resisted her advances.
According to him, the woman wanted him to perform anal sex and remained adamant despite his refusal.
He also stated that he did not remember what happened after they had sex “for the third time” and passed out.
“I do not remember what happened after we made love for the third time. I was woken up by the cops, the next morning,” he said in his statement.
He pointed to the recovered condoms to plead innocence, saying they suggested the sex was consensual. “There is no question of rape as I used condoms twice, which have also been recovered,” he said.
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